15 Minutes to Pray through Your Year

As followers of Jesus, we do not primarily plan, strategize, or set resolutions, or goals.

We primarily follow Jesus.

When it comes to reflecting on the previous year and setting goals for a new one, our main goal is not self-improvement, becoming better versions of ourselves, or setting lofty goals and resolutions.

Our main goal is to answer the question: how was God at work in my life in 2024 and how can I join Him in His promises and purposes for 2025?

In other words, where is Jesus leading me this year, and how do I follow Him there?

Granted, this is easier said than done, and hearing God’s voice requires a lifestyle of listening, community, obedience, and reflection — what the Christian tradition has classically called discernment. I’ve written a guide on how to hear God’s voice more generally, and I also hope to release a 30-day journal to dive deeper into these themes in the next few months.

But today, I’d love to offer us some reflective questions to help us process 2024 and step confidently into 2025.

One more caveat: I’m convinced that everyone who follows Jesus is ultimately following Him to His death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus Himself said:

And Paul a few years later said:

In context, Paul is not inviting the Corinthians to imitate his personality quirks and preferences — he is inviting them to imitate him in the way he lays down (or dies to) his preferences for the good of the community that God has called him to. He is arguing not for a discipleship plan based on Paul’s lifestyle choices, he is inviting a community to be shaped by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as the way that we make decisions, live, move, and have our being.

So, with all that being said, I’d love to invite us to take a deep breath, carve out 15 minutes, and answer the following questions framed around the events from Good Friday to Easter Sunday:

1. What are 3-5 high moments of 2024, and what are 3-5 hard, low, or challenging moments of 2024?

Like Ignatius’s classic prayer of Examen, the first step is simply to review your year with God. Sometimes we can move so fast that it’s important to just notice and name: what happened? To do this, I frequently find it helpful to pull out my photos app on my phone, and simply scroll through the year and make note of anything that sticks out in my notebook.

2. What died in 2024? (Good Friday)

This might be a brutal question, but I find one of the hardest parts of reviewing my year is naming with honesty what died. I don’t know whether this is a cultural preference towards optimism and growth or simply human pain avoidance, but I do know that followers of Jesus are invited to follow Jesus to his death before a resurrection can come, and this often means reframing losses, hardships, and trials as deaths. This can be the death of dreams, relationships, places, ideals, habits, ideas of who you were or thought you were or a whole myriad of things — but they must be named to be grieved. The good news is that followers of Jesus are also invited to follow Jesus to his resurrection (Sunday is coming!), but first, the grain of wheat must fall to the ground — first, we must sow in tears if we want to reap in joy.

3. Where are you waiting in the confusing middle for redemption or clarity? (Silent Saturday)

Between the cross of Friday and the resurrection of Sunday morning, there is something that has come to be called Silent Saturday. It is the day when Jesus was laid in the grave — and nothing happened except waiting. As we follow Jesus, there will be areas of our lives where we are still waiting for resurrection. There will be deaths that have not experienced redemption yet. Take some time to name these with honesty before God. Where are you still waiting for breakthrough?

4. What new things were born, re-born, or resurrected in 2024? What resurrections might be present in seed form that have the potential to come into full bloom this year? (Ressurection Sunday)

Because God is a God of resurrection, I’d venture to guess that, in addition to the deaths of last year, there were also seeds of hope, dreams that were reborn, or glimmers of a resurrection to come just behind the scenes. These could be new relationships filled with promise, dreams that were reborn or have come into further focus and clarity, business ideas with a breath of life on them — or anything that could look like a resurrection this year! Take some time to name these things now.

5. If you could pick one word to describe how God was at work in 2024, what would it be? (For more creative types, if you had to name 2024 as a chapter in the book of your life, how would you name it?)

Now it’s time to summarize: how did following Jesus to his death, burial, and resurrection work out in your life this year? What unique theme or emphasis could describe the work of God in your life? What did you learn about God? What did you learn about yourself? How are you stepping further into the life that God has called you to live?

6. Where do you feel the presence of God for 2025? (Pentecost)

This step most closely aligns with Good Friday to Easter Sunday sequence with the story of Pentecost — when the Holy Spirit came. Ultimately, all of our discernment and good processes are not a substitute for an active, dynamic partnership with the Holy Spirit in our lives. Take some time to discern — which relationship, dream, idea, partnership, or commitment seems to hold a sense of the presence and power of God for this year? And, to be clear, I don’t mean an abstract sense of God’s presence — where do you feel His unique empowerment and grace to move forward? Oftentimes, for me, this is an area where I feel a unique sense that I am called and equipped to partner with God through prayer for a particular outcome. Or this might mean there’s just an intangible grace to take a step in a certain direction. And for others, God might be inviting us to wait (just like the disciples did for 40 days) until we can feel the presence of God clearly in a particular area.

7. How can you partner with God for a particular rhythm or practice?

And then, once you have named where God’s presence is empowering you forward in 2025, how can you partner with God with a particular rhythm or practice to see His dreams for your life come to pass in 2025? In other words, how can you steward the promise that He has given you? I wrote last year a bit about how a daily or weekly practice is often a better way to live into the new year than setting an overly ambitious goal. This year, I would add that a rhythm or practice (like praying for something on your lunch break or running a mile a day) simultaneously has a better chance of leading you to a larger goal and leaves more room for the Spirit to surprise you in the new ways this year. Pick a plan — but then leave room for God to move!

Here’s to the adventure of following Jesus in 2025! I’m praying for all of you to come alive and live in love with Him in new ways this year. If I can pray for you in any way, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

-Ryan