The Pastor’s Pen

By Steven Temple

Many spent the last week making resolutions or promises to keep for this new year that we have entered. Losing weight, starting a new diet, planning to hit the gym, planning a trip or adventure, and some did not make any at all. Some stayed up to watch the clock strike midnight and welcome in the new year, some were at a party, some watched the famous ball drop on TV, some spent the night at a watch service at their church, and some slept through it not worried about or celebrating it at all. Everyone sees the new year entering differently.

Some are eager for the new year and all the possibilities, some that are sad that the year is passing, and others that are glad to see it gone. Many have had great accomplishments or celebrations throughout the past year while others have dealt with setbacks and losses. Challenges, heartbreaks, wins, advances, setbacks, and a variety of other adjectives could describe what the outgoing year meant for you.

What about your faith? Did you drift from the Lord this year or did you get closer to Him? In John 7:37 Jesus is pleading for the latter. This scripture says, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” Jesus entreats us to be reconciled to Him. The sinner must come to Jesus, not to works, not to a doctrine, not to a specific church, but to a personal Redeemer. His grace is extended to us in this new year to come now and drink of His water. This invitation is written addressed personally to you and I regardless of our relationship with Him.

With the excitement of the new year we must enter it cautiously for we know not what it may hold for us. Within it may come great good or we may be met with great challenges and trials. With either of these we must cling to Jesus as we walk through this new year that we have been blessed to see. The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 3 that in everything, at all times, we need to be found in Christ. We are nothing without Christ in our lives. We have nothing if we do not have Christ. We must know Christ and have fellowship with Him. We need to be found in Christ in this new year each and every day.

Maybe this past year has been really hard. You have lost a loved one, a job, a home, went through a relationship break up, and just had a year of hurts and pains that have left an emptiness in your life. Along the way you have let go of God and now you feel like you are unworthy to call upon Him again. Sometimes we are so ashamed of ourselves that we think the Lord is ashamed of us, too. He knew that we would struggle from time to time, make wrong decisions, have rough patches, but He doesn’t give up on us. Paul also says in chapter 3 of Philippians that we must forget all of those things behind us and reach forth for those things in front of us. We can not allow the enemy to keep us down with his tactics and words. We have to dust our laps and get back up and keep going. We can not allow the setbacks of this past year to hinder us from pressing “toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

New Year’s resolutions are made just as quickly as they are broken many times. We may keep them for a couple of days, a few weeks, or maybe a month, then let them slip away and we find ourselves in the same routine as the year that has passed. Can I persuade you this day to not allow this routine to include a lapse in your relationship with the Lord? If everything else falls apart during the course of this new year that we have entered, make sure that whatever it takes you never let go of the hand of God. If you have held to His hand tightly over this past year, may I challenge you to squeeze harder this time around? Whatever you may face in this year do not find yourself facing it alone. Whatever may come, whether good or bad, you can endure with the help of God.

The good news is that yesterday is gone. The bad news is that yesterday is gone. We can only hope that as the year progresses we are met with things that are uplifting and encouraging. But we must approach each day cautiously optimistic, not knowing what we may encounter, but expecting great things. However, when we have hold of the hand of God we can face and get through even the toughest of things. Whether you made a resolution for this year or not, don’t neglect your calling or your purpose. Rise and be restored. Live and be engaged. Love and share love. Build on your relationship with Jesus each day.

 

Rev. Steven Temple is the Pastor of The Church on the Hill in Rose Hill, VA and welcomes you to come visit. Services times are as follows: Sunday morning Bible Study at 10am, Sunday service at 11am, and Wednesday evenings at 7pm. The church is located at 681 Highpoint Road, Rose Hill, VA.