December 28, 2023

Good News for the New Year

A compilation

Audio length: 11:12
Download Audio (10.2MB)

Scripture about new beginnings is always encouraging, as it gives you a fresh perspective as you enter a new phase in your life. God’s everlasting love and protection will follow you every year, and these Bible verses will only serve as further reminders of this fact. … The New Year brings a new chapter in your life—but know that God will always be a main character in the book.

2 Corinthians 4:17–18: “Our temporary minor problems are producing an eternal stockpile of glory for us that is beyond all comparison. We don’t focus on the things that can be seen but on the things that can’t be seen. The things that can be seen don’t last, but the things that can’t be seen are eternal.”

The Good News: Bad times always pass, and what awaits us in the future will always be more glorious than what we can imagine.

1 Peter 1:3: “May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! On account of his vast mercy, he has given us new birth. You have been born anew into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

The Good News: Thanks to Christ’s sacrifice, we have the power to always start fresh without the burdens of our past to weigh us down. …

Lamentations 3:22–23: “Certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through! They are renewed every morning. Great is your faithfulness.”

The Good News: God’s love towards us is as certain as the arrival of a new day, and because He is unwavering even in the face of change, we can always rely on His mercy.—Jackie Frere and Corinne Sullivan¹

Flowers, projects, and goals for the New Year

I love tending my garden, but I have a problem sometimes with flowers. I love to buy a few each spring and enjoy them through the long summer days, tending them and watering them and admiring their beauty. I just have a hard time letting go of them as they begin to turn yellow and die.

When I see the devastation of my plants at the end of the season, I almost feel like giving up on my garden altogether, but I’m always amazed by spring. I see the first tiny new sprouts shoot up from the ground and realize that life is still there. The germ of the seed is still there. I just need to be patient. I need to trust in the seeds. All they need is to be allowed to do their thing and be born into a glorious new plant.

This brings to mind that timeless promise in the book of Lamentations in the Bible: “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lamentations 3:22–23).

This is like my ideas, dreams, and goals for each new year: sometimes I just need to let them go or put them on hold for a time. I need to trust that when the time is right, all those thoughts will begin to germinate again and I will have a project. Then if I tenderly and diligently care for the project, it will come to life.

So this year I’m going to stop mourning dead plants and projects. I’m going to let them be and give them time. Then when the moment is right, when the sun shines bright and the gentle rains begin to come again, I will have the blessing of seeing the beginning of something new and beautiful.—Joyce Suttin

Cracked!

My new year literally started with a bang! On December 31st, my phone leaped out of my hand in an apparent dive of depression. I picked it up immediately, not really expecting anything to be wrong. It had fallen on a carpeted floor, and I’d dropped it several times before without damage.

As soon as I turned it face-up and saw the Spiderman-strand cracks across the whole screen, my heart sank. It still works, but in a rather unusable way. And out of warranty by far.

This accident actually taught me something, and right on time for the new year. First of all, don’t rely on yesterday’s plans or experiences too much. Today, things might just be different, and in fact probably will be. We need to go along day by day, being open to the new things God might bring into our lives, or we could find ourselves surprised and unprepared.

Second, this taught me that in life, stuff happens. Life is by definition a continuous process of motion and change. Maybe our Father allows these things because, in His wisdom, He knows they will make us better. We must never get discouraged when rough stuff is thrust into our face. Maybe we’ll overcome it in a glorious victory and see just how amazing our God is. Or maybe we’ll get hit hard by it, barely able to get up, feeling like we must have handled it wrong, and still see just how amazing our God is! Our future is sure and our help is constant.

I don’t know all that you’re going through. It could be one massive problem, 1,000 little ones, or anything in between. Maybe you even feel a little “cracked” yourself. That’s where Jesus comes in. He knows every individual repair need and technique, and He’ll restore us as He knows best. His guarantee is “forever” and He has promised to be “with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

So even if I’m seeing through a “glass unclearly” right now, I know for sure that, as the old hymn says, “it will all be right at last” (1 Corinthians 13:12).—Chris Mizrany

'Twill all be right at last

Pray on, pray on, O weary not,
Tho’ great thy conflict be;
Look bravely up, and trust in Him
Whose love abides with thee.
Remember how He led thee forth,
Thro’ toil and dangers past;
Tho’ yet unanswered is thy prayer,
’Twill all be right at last.

Pray on, pray on, with steadfast hope,
For thou shalt yet prevail;
Ask what thou wilt, it shall be done,
The promise cannot fail.
Cling firmly to the solid rock,
And hold the anchor fast;
The clouds will break, the light will come
’Twill all be right at last.
—Fanny Crosby, 1892

Strawberries, candles, and resolutions

It was a bright sunny day in South Africa, and the old year was coming to a close. Thoughts had turned from Christmas celebrations to New Year’s resolutions.

The farmhouse door clanged behind me as I went into the kitchen. My mother followed my gaze to a heaping bowl of strawberries on the table. “Yvonna brought those over,” she said. “A gift from her family.”

Yvonna was a teenager who lived two houses down. Like most families in the village, hers had tended the strawberry fields behind their house for months. Every harvest, our neighbors came to our door with their arms full of strawberries.

Yvonna had been asking for Bible studies for some time, but we had been genuinely busy and kept putting it off. I sighed and resolved to get Yvonna started on those classes soon.

New Year’s Day dawned bright and full of promise. But Yvonna was not there to see it. She had been killed in an auto accident shortly after midnight.

Everyone was deeply affected by the loss of our friend. In the months that followed we found ways to comfort Yvonna’s family, and the community was brought closer together. Many young people came to us with questions about life, death, and God, which we were happy to answer. Yvonna believed in Jesus, which brought great comfort as we knew that she was safe in the arms of Jesus.

For my part, each New Year’s Day since, as the fireworks dissolve in the early morning sky, I have thought about Yvonna and renewed my resolution to not wait for the “perfect” time to do the things that really matter.—Saskia Smith

Published on Anchor December 2023. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso. Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ https://www.womansday.com/life/g30127990/new-year-bible-verses

Posted in: audio, compilation, encouragement, following god, new year, positive thinking