Mensa Otabil - Welcome to a New Year
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Welcome to a brand new year! We are so excited that the Lord guided each one of us and brought us into this great year. So, we go to our concluding reading from Joshua chapter 3, verses 1-17. Then the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan. I love what happened; they stood, and the whole nation crossed over until everybody had completed the cycle. We thank God for bringing all of us into this new year. We know that there are still some nations that probably have yet to experience a new year because of our differences, but the Lord will take each one of us. To God be the glory for the great things that He has done!
So today, we stand at the beginning of the year. I don’t know how your new year went, but however you entered into this year, may the Lord increase you, may the Lord prosper you, may the Lord multiply your efforts, and may He cause you to see goodness throughout this year. Just three important things I want to share with you as we start a new year: the first one is gratitude. It’s always great to be grateful to God for bringing us into a new year. Somebody might say, «Well, it’s just another day.» It’s not another day; it’s the beginning of an epoch. It’s the beginning of a new season-365 days. That’s not a joke; that’s a lot of days, a lot of weeks-52 weeks. To start a new year is not something to trifle with, and that’s why people rejoice all over the world when a new year begins. So let’s be grateful to God!
The second point is to be confident that the Lord will be good to us. Many of us begin the new year with anxiety, fear, and uncertainty. We’re not sure how things are going to pan out, but remember, the Lord is good. We serve a good God, not a bad God, not an evil God, but a good God. And although He doesn’t promise that everything will be smooth and that there will be no turbulence, He promises us His presence. So we must constantly have faith in the goodness of the Lord. We must trust that He will lead us and make things well for us. I believe that the Lord will be good to you, to your family, to the work of your hands, to your business, to your career, to your education-whatever you’re doing. May the Lord be good to you, and may the goodness of the Lord overshadow you in all your endeavors. So let’s be grateful, let’s think about God’s goodness.
Number three: we have to enter with faith, and we have to live by faith and not by sight. Living by faith means that the word of God must always be at the forefront of everything we do. We meditate on the word of God, we pray by the word of God, we trust God every day, we pray every day, and we do our devotions. We walk by faith-a daily walk of faith. Jesus taught us to pray and said, «Give us this day our daily bread,» not «this day our yearly bread.» God hasn’t given you everything at one go; He gives it to you bit by bit, little by little, small by small. But you have to trust Him every day, and it is the accumulation of that daily trust that gives you a great year. So you walk by faith at each step. When you encounter a problem, you pray about it, you trust God, and you talk to God about it. It may not be resolved immediately, but you continue going day by day in faith. We walk by faith and not by sight.
So, show gratitude to God, have confidence in God’s goodness, and walk by faith. I believe if you do these three things, you will not only manage very well but will actually increase abundantly. Welcome to this year, and let’s enjoy the ride, enjoying God’s presence with us throughout this year. Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and a brand new year. I bring my life and my family under your covering. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.