HAPPY NEW YEAR?

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Many have said it to me and I have said it to them and many others. Most, I perceive, understand their statement as a wish in the sense of “I hope you will have a happy new year.” For some of us, it is a promise, i.e. I will have a happy new year, and you will have a happy new year!

Now that is a presumptuous statement. None of us know what will happen in the next twelve months. There will certainly be some good times, some victories, some progress, some divine healings and blessings of many kinds. But also there will be troubles such as sickness, death, accidents, setbacks, conflicts and woes of various degrees. But in Christ we share the confidence of David, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want….Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” (Psalm 23:1,6)

            This confidence is expressed in a popular gospel song, “Through It All,” one verse of which says:

            “I thank God for the mountains,

            and I thank Him for the valleys,

            I thank Him for the storms He brought me through.

            For if I’d never had a problem,

            I wouldn’t know God could solve them,

            I’d never know what faith in God could do.          

             ..........

            Through it all, through it all,

            I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God.”

            Because we are confident that Jesus loves us, and because we are confident that God is our Shepherd, we know that, through it all, this will be a happy new year. 

Grace and Peace