A NEW YEAR
01st Jan 2014
Happy New Year! It rolls so easily off the tongue, but what really is being said or implied? We may have a whole range of ‘New Year Resolutions’, perhaps a new dieting regime, new attempts to overcome some bad habit, or new plans to improve in areas of failure. However, by mid January we can be surrounded by the debris of defeat and disappointment.
I believe a better plan is to enter this New Year inviting our loving Heavenly Father to pour new things into our lives every day. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
I want to start each day thanking God for His great faithfulness, for always being there for me, for His forgiveness which never runs out, for His compassion which sustains me in every trial. I want to daily reach out for a fresh infilling of his Holy Spirit, and to know that includes His great wisdom.
As I greet each day I will say, “This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)
When sadness comes, and things do not work out as I would want them to, I will remember the words from Revelation 21:4-5 which says of God, “He will wipe away every tear from your eyes....He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ ”
God is giving us a year of new opportunities, new blessings, new expressions of His love, and a new future. I live with the prophetic scripture in Isaiah 43:18-19, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up do you not perceive it?”
I look forward to this coming year with joy and anticipation, as daily I experience His love and faithfulness, as I see Him at work in people’s lives, and as His second coming is nearer.
by Charles Sibthorpe
