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Happy New Year!

January 9, 2012

Each year brings its own changes and challenges... it seems that no two years are the same and we should probably be grateful for that. If you're anything like me you've either: A) Already blown any New Year's resolutions you thought about or B) Learned by now to not even bother making them.

As I thought about what to offer you for the year ahead I realized I could do no better then to give you the same words that have meant so much to me over the last several years in the expectation that God would use them to encourage you:

For many of us, our New Year's excitement is tempered by either the remembrance of last year's failures or our fear for what this year may hold. Oswald Chambers writes these words that I have come to take to heart...

"At the end of the year, we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God's grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for the future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present."

Chambers goes on to remind the reader of God's promise in Isaiah 52:12...the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. (NKJV)

Speaking of that verse, Chambers goes on to say:

"This is a gracious revelation - that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures... [a]nd God's hand reaches back to the past, settling all claims against our conscience.

"As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ."

Chambers concludes with these words which I have found to be a special comfort:

"Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him." My Utmost for His Highest - Dec 31.

I will leave you with this last thought from Charles Spurgeon, the last sentence of which I personally have found to be my new watch phrase for the year:

"O sweet Lord Jesus, Thou art the present portion of Thy people, favour us this year with such a sense of Thy preciousness, that from its first to its last day we may be glad and rejoice in Thee. Let January open with joy in the Lord and December close with gladness in Jesus." Charles Spurgeon Evening Devotional - Jan 01.

My God bless you as you embark on this New Year according to His will...

Art: The Second Coming of Jesus Christ by Ron DiCianni

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