Prayer Of Blessing At The New Year
This Chinese New Year prayer of blessing using Bible verses is based on the Chinese New Year tradition of celebrating by sweeping clean the old and making way for new fortune and prosperity. This prayer uses some of the common wishes and greetings exchanged on Chinese New Year to form a Christian prayer for spiritual prosperity and well being in Christ in the coming year using Bible verses.
History
The Chinese New Year falls between midJanuary and late-February. The celebrations last for two weeks. On houses during this time will be seen coloured lanterns, brightly coloured banners with new year greetings, and arrangements of flowers. Fireworks, a Chinese invention, are let off on the Chinese New Year’s Eve. New clothes are worn to mark the end of the old year, casting aside whatever misfortunes there were in the old year.
In public, lines of people dance with a long dragon’s costume over their heads. The dragon’s dance, performed to the accompaniment of drums and gongs, is believed to ward off evil spirits for the year ahead. The New Year celebrations end when children parade through the streets carrying coloured lanterns that they have lit.
The date of the Chinese New Year varies in the solar year that we use because it is based on the lunar calendar. In the Chinese communities in Britain, many at this time will use the Cantonese greeting, “Kung hay fat choy”, which means, “May you prosper”. Each year in the Chinese Calendar is associated with one of twelve animals. With New Year starting in the corresponding months of January/February, the years are named as follows: 1998 - Tiger 1999 - Rabbit 2000 - Dragon 2001 - Snake 2002 - Horse 2003 - Goat or sheep 2004 - Monkey 2005 - Chicken or rooster 2006 - Dog 2007 - Pig 2008 - Rat 2009 - Ox
The Prayer
May God guard us and keep us in safety and comfort and in health and strength, sending us nothing but good. May God send down so many blessings that the day is not long enough for them all.
Traditional greeting: “May your wealth [gold and jade] come to fill a hall.”
Our blessing: May your wealth of knowledge of the one true God, fill your heart and spirit to overflowing
Traditional greeting: “May you realize your ambitions.”
Our blessing: May God’s perfect and beautiful will be done in your life.
Traditional greeting: “Greet the New Year and encounter happiness.”
Our blessing: May you hear Jesus knocking at the door of your heart and open up so you, dear Jesus our true source of happiness, can come in and commune.
Traditional greeting: “May all your wishes be fulfilled.”
Our blessing: May you learn to pray in the name and character of Jesus so you might fulfill God’s promise that God will give us so much more than we even know to ask for.
Traditonal greeting: “May your happiness be without limit”
Our blessing: May you come to know Jesus so that you might be able to experience the kind of joy that is not based on circumstances, the lasting kind of joy that no one can take away from you.
Tradtional greeting: “May you hear [in a letter] that all is well”
Our blessing: May you read God’s word in the Bible which is God’s love letter to you telling the good news of Jesus and God’s never ending love for all people.
Tradtional greeting: “May a small investment bring ten-thousandfold profits”
Our blessing: May you become like the seed in the good soil in the parable of the sower that yields a hundredfold from what God has planted in your heart.
Tradtional greeting: “May your happiness and longevity be complete”
Our blessing: May you be like a tree planted by streams of water which continues to bear fruit in God’s Kingdom during every season of your life.
Tradtional greeting: “When wealth is acquired, precious objects follow.”
Our blessing: Seek Jesus and His Kingdom. When He is found, you will soon forget all other concerns of life except your relationship with God, just like a merchant who finds a pearl of great value and sells everything he owns to buy it.
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