New & Old

It seams like yesterday that everybody was talking about the year 2000. Extravagant parties, grandiose preparations and high expectations. On the other hand, dooms-day seers, foretelling the end of the world; Y2K prognostics which lead to multi million dollar investments in Y2K compliant equipment and software. With all eyes on the year 2000, hearts pounding, a mixture of expectation and fear… and now it’s all over! The year 2000 has come and gone! Where did it go? What have I accomplished? What have I lost? What have I gained? Who have I helped? To whom do I owe gratitude? Has it been a good year or a bad year? Why are you asking all these questions any way? Mostly to get your attention and also to get you to thinking. Maybe you don’t want to think about last year. I still believe that the beginning of a new year is a good time to pause for a moment and consider the year that has gone by.

The psalmist in Psalm 90:12 asks God to “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This “heart of wisdom” is the heart that God desires for all of His children. How do we “number our days”? We note in this psalm that our days are few. The older that you get the more you will realize that life is very short. This brings us back to some of the questions asked earlier. Answering these question and other similar questions will help us to examine our lives and give us a “heart of wisdom”.

No matter what last year was like, there is only one thing we can do and that is throw out the old and start again with the new. This is God’s way. God would have us to get rid of the old things; old man, old habits, old attitudes, etc. But before you throw out the old, before you dismiss last year, you must examine it and learn from it. Take a look at your mistakes. Take a look are your shortcomings. Take a look at your triumphs, joys and achievements. Take a look at all these things, be honest before the Lord and call them by name. Then you need to confess your sins and faults to the Lord and praise and worship Him for the victories, joys and success He has given. But that is not all. You must also learn to forget, yes, forget the mistakes as well as the victories; forget the sorrow as well as the joy. It’s a new year and time to move on.

My question to you now is, what are you going to move on to? What do you want for this coming year? This is where a “heart of wisdom” comes in. Remember that your life is very short. Remember also that only what you allow Christ to work in and through your life will count in eternity!

There seems to be no extravagant parties, grandiose preparations and high expectations for the year 2001. No dooms-day seers, foretelling the end of the world. No hearts pounding. No great expectations or fears. As far as the world is concerned it will more than likely be an ordinary year with ordinary occurrences. But, couldn’t this be the year that Jesus Christ returns? Could this be the year that God will finally THROW OUT THE OLD and introduce the NEW?! A New Heaven and New Earth! Imagine! No! Don’t imagine. BELIEVE!

If you believe that this could be the year for that monumental event, shouldn’t you live every second of this year in reverent expectation of His return?!! Shouldn’t you work like you’ve never worked before? Shouldn’t you love like you’ve never loved before? Shouldn’t you pray like you’ve never prayed before? Shouldn’t you obey like you’ve never obeyed before?

I pray that you… and I, will do so this year.

RC