Speaker: Bonnie Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | 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.  Lamentations 3:22-23

This is it, the last day of the year, and within hours a new and strange-sounding year will begin full of we have no idea what!  Hopes, dreams, beginnings and endings. It’s a bit scary!  But should it be, really?

Tomorrow morning (or afternoon) when you rise and face the eastern sky, you won’t find emblazoned across the heavens the words, “This is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday!”  Neither will you find the warning, “Today is all you have so make it a good one!” You will find the winter sun piercing the clouds, squinting at you, driving back the darkness and giving you the light of another day.

Life really isn’t broken up into days and months and years but into 24-hour cycles as the dawn of a new day comes; and these God-given periods are what life is about:  sunrise and sunset, one day at a time.

Coming to the end of a year often is a cause for reflection, and that can be positive.  Sometimes it’s good to look back, to reflect, and to see the hand of God who brought you through some rough times.  Before God took His children into the Promised Land, he asked them to look back.  Here are the words from Deuteronomy 8:2, “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”

“Remember how the LORD your God led you,” was Moses’ instruction.  As you stand on the threshold of a New Year, there are five things which I hope you will remember which can serve as guideposts for the future.

First, remember God’s faithfulness to you this past year.  It was Jeremiah who cried out, “Great is your faithfulness!”   He is still faithful today.  Remember how God did meet you this past year, how He faithfully responded to your heart cry and saved you from disaster.

Next, remember the fact that God is Sovereign and that He is still in control of the universe. “2 Chronicles 29:11 reminds us of just who God is: “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.”  Let’s refresh our memories about who God is.  Yes, He is big enough to be in control of our lives.

Then remember His provision for you this past year.  Are you familiar with the poet and song-writer, Annie Johnson Flint?  Born in the late 1800s, hers was a life of difficulty and disability and yet she remembered the goodness of God. “Hitherto the Lord hath helped us,/ Hitherto His hand hath led,” she penned. “Hitherto His arm protected,/ Hitherto His bounty fed./  Will His love desert us wholly,/ Will His heart our need forget?/  Will His presence clean forsake us who has never failed us yet?”  How would you answer those questions?

Finally, remember His promises.  There are literally thousands of promises in God’s word with your name attached to them.  While some promises are given specifically to certain groups or people, most of the promises of the New Testament are made to God’s children.   They belong to you, not because you are good, or beautiful, or kind to others, but because you are God’s child.  They are part of your inheritance in Jesus Christ.

Face the New Year one day at a time, walking hand in hand with Him who knows no surprises and will meet you at the beginning of each new day.

Resource reading: Deuteronomy 8:1-20