On this, the final day in the calendar year 2013, let us get ready at the stroke of midnight to pray and thank God for the many blessings that have been bestowed on us in the past 365 days.
A new year provides us with a chance to reflect on what was, to consider what is, and to think about what we want to become. It is a mileage marker, a point of no return, a chance to draw a line in the sand and begin anew.
After the clock strikes midnight, the year 2013 will be only a memory and the year 2014 will be a reality.
There is something about a new year that beckons us with new opportunity. Yet Satan will use this new opportunity to remind us of our old failures, our old defeats, and what he perceives as our hopeless future.
Don't fall for that deceptive snare.
Satan is a liar.
We know that through the power and presence of Jesus Christ in our lives, we as Christians, are truly a blessed group of people of all races, ages and locations around the globe.
The loving hand of God has never left us.
God was always near us and prayers were answered.
This new year can be the start of different, if we will act differently by believing the truth and doing the good we already know that we should be doing.
James 4:17 says, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
We have a choice.
Some will continue to waste away their lives chasing the next dollar.
Others will let another year pass by them by failing to humble themselves and be what they know they should be.
Others will choose to drown their sorrows in various passions, coping mechanisms, or pointless addictions.
How can we make a break and truly change?
How can we escape a bad habit?
How can we be free?
There is much good that we know in our hearts that we should be doing that we are not doing.
Do we love our wives and treat them properly, or do we yell at them, demean them, and fail to show them proper attention and affection?
Do wives respect their husbands and give them the admiration and trust that they need?
Do we evangelize?
Do we see opportunity to bless someone, but walk past it?
Do we read our Bibles?
Do we pray, not just when we need something, but when we just want to thank God for who he is and who he has made us?
While things are not always perfect, each of us can say we are blessed in some way – even if it's on a smaller scale than we had hoped.
Follow the advice given in Hebrews 3:13 (The Amplified Bible), which reads: “But instead warn (admonish, urge, and encourage) one another every day, as long as it is called Today, that none of you may be hardened [into settled rebellion] by the deceitfulness of sin [by the fraudulence, the stratagem, the trickery which the delusive glamor of his sin may play on him].
Today is the day we can change..
This new year resolve to love God more.
Let our faith not grow weary or weak. Let us remain strong in our commitment to serve God and let the light of God shine in our words – spoken and written.
Let our faith remain steadfast as we serve others in the name of God – reaching out to the needy in our communities, in our churches and around the world.
In this new year, let us never grow content to just go to church. Let us be the mind, hands, arms, body and voice of the church.
These morning messages are now available by email. Simply write me with you email address at schneider.nick@gmail.com, and I'll be happy to forward them to your in-box.
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