Let Us Start a New Year

Let us start a New Year. Let us have a new beginning. Let us finish this year with repentance and thanksgiving, and begin the New Year with joy and hope.

We don’t know the hidden secrets of the future, but we know who controls the future. We trust His words: “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (Jn. 14:27) “Do not worry about tomorrow” (Matt. 6:34) “do not be afraid.” (Matt. 14:27) Thus, we should not be afraid from the future.

So, what is the meaning of a New Year for us?

A New Year Means Available New Opportunities

How many times did we feel sad for loosing so many opportunities in vain? We could have gained a lot of them if we have tried. How many times did we cried out, “We need another chance or opportunity?”

Thank God who granted us new opportunities in the coming New Year. These are new opportunities to establish the things we started in the last year; those things that we did not fulfill in the passing year. These are also new opportunities to correct our falls and mistakes; and to avoid them in the coming year.

A New Year means a new invitation to help others, to minister for them, to please them, to satisfy their needs, etc. Not only for family and relatives, but also for all people, i.e., neighbors, friends and even enemies. It is a new opportunity to work through it with love, sacrificing yourself for others to spread the kingdom of God out of loving his holy name.

May we make use of these new opportunities for our salvation, and that of others too, to work out our eternity as well as our demands here.

A New Year Means New Experiences

Usually we evaluate someone by his/her experience; the more experiences he/she has, the more valuable this person will be. My value in God’s sight is extremely great, as He loved me, even unto death, and elevated me from the level of a slave into being His beloved child (Jn. 15:15), a member of the household of God (Eph. 2:19); and even more than that, He elevated me to be able to partake of His Divine Nature. (2 Pet. 1:4) Thus, I am in need of gaining new experiences for my benefit.

These experiences could be spiritual or practical, to be added to our previous ones. As an example, we gained new experiences during our spiritual struggles, which can be added to the previous experiences. The same can be said about solving our problems.

Our relationship with God becomes stronger and deeper day by day. Accordingly, we gain useful new experiences from it. The ways and methods He used to reveal His love to us, and the meaning of certain events that happened during that relationship are lessons gained to strengthen us and to avoid other things that affect that relationship negatively.

Let us gain spiritual insight to realize and gain valuable experiences, and to avoid the negatives of the past in our future.

A New Year Means New Objectives And Hopes

Everyone has his/her objectives to reach, and hopes to fulfill. These objectives may be numerous and varied. If we fail to evaluate them perfectly, and prioritize them, we will spend our effort in vain; or maybe we will spend most of our time and most of our effort to fulfill one of these objectives, but not the most important one.

So, let us identify our goals and objectives, evaluate them, and arrange them according to their importance and their value for us.

There are final objectives and intermediate ones that will lead to those final objectives. These intermediate objectives can be fulfilled in the near future, which will help and encourage us to reach our final goals.

The most important objective to fulfill and dedicate our maximum effort towards is our eternity. I wonder what are the intermediate steps that will lead us to reach this final goal? What should we do to fulfill them?

A New Year Means A New Life

A new life full of joy, love, peace and hope, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice!” (Eph. 4:4) A new life without anxiety, fear, trouble or desperation, “I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage” (Josh. 1:5,6) “do not be afraid, nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Josh. 1:9)

A new life, through which we will experience how our Christ carries our sorrows and grief’s (Is. 53:4) to give us rest, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mt. 11:28)

A new life established upon God’s mercies for us, and His compassion that leads us to give thanks to Him in every condition, and in all times, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” (Ps. 103:2)

A new life established upon the steadfast faith in Christ who loves me, gave himself up for me, and is working eagerly for my salvation. He came to give me life instead of death, eternal life, and a more abundant life, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (Jn. 10:10)

A New Year With New Promises

God’s promises for us are renewed everyday, and His mercies for us save us from being consumed, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning.” (Lam. 3:21,22)

How many promises are given to us, and how great are they! They initiate hope in us and encourage us. “The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.” (Lam. 3:24,25) Let us search for those promises and ask Him to fulfill them for us in the coming year.

How about our promises to Him? Many times we promise Him and we fail to meet these promises, or we are lazy to fulfill them, or even forget about them completely, or we fall in desperation after many failing trials to fulfill them because we depend only on ourselves.

Let us renew our promises, asking Him to help and strengthen us to fulfill them, because he said, “Without me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5)

Let us renew our promises, praying:

“Promises of my mouth bless it O’ Lord”