A very Happy New Year to you all, I trust that you had a good Christmas.
As we stand at the beginning of 2025, I’m sure that for many of us there is uncertainty in our minds. It may be that there are things coming up in the next months that are difficult. It may well be that something in your situation is causing you concern.
As we look around the world, there are things there which make us uneasy. There are places where there is conflict and that can give a sense of uncertainty as to what will happen in the future.
The truth of the matter is that we never can know for certain what will happen. At the beginning of 2024, who would have thought that things would pan out the way that they have over the past year?
And so, in the midst of uncertainty, is there anything that we can be sure of? If things are so unpredictable do we have to just accept that and get on with things? Well, in one sense yes. Obviously in our lives we change the things that we can, but we also accept those things we cannot do anything about. And yet, in the middle of all that is going on, we do know that there is one constant – God himself. He does not change; he can be relied upon. And what is more he has promised to be with us through all the things that we go through, including those we cannot change. Here is what he said to his people in the Old Testament, just before they were to go into the Promised Land.
“Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31 v 8 (NLT)
The people had been through so many different things that they could not have predicted. And they would continue to do so through the centuries that would follow. But God could be trusted completely. As we read through the Bible, we see the way that God was always faithful to his people, even though they were not always faithful to him.
He promised them that the Messiah would be born. That really did happen; we have just been celebrating his birth. And if God was faithful in keeping that promise, we know he will be faithful in keeping his promise to be with his people always.
And so, we can be encouraged as we go into this New Year. The promise of God is to be with us too. Whatever we are going through, however things may turn out, he is the one constant. Let’s be thankful that we can trust him today. There is a hymn that sums this up perfectly, I am hoping that we can sing it before too long. It is number 245 in our hymn book:
I do not know what lies ahead, The way I cannot see;
Yet one stands near to be my guide He’ll show the way to me:
I know who holds the future, And he’ll guide me with his hand,
With God things don’t just happen, Everything by him is planned;
So, as I face tomorrow with its problems large and small,
I’ll trust the God of miracles, Give to him my all.
A.B. Smith & E. Clarke © Singspiration Inc.
Love in Jesus,
Richard
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