As a New Year Begins

“Happy new year!”  With that traditional greeting we began the year 2014. No doubt by now you have received or shared this greeting many times. In spite of such a positive greeting, many will enter the new year with anxiety and despair, carrying with them remembrances of unpleasant past experiences.  A new year will bring new opportunities and even challenges. Sometimes we are tempted to dwell on the past and not embrace the present with hope for a more positive future.

Scriptures offer important insights regarding how we are to live as Christians. This passage from Ephesians offers guidance as we begin a new year:  “So get rid of your old self,  which made you live as you used to -- the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on the new self, which is created in God's likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.” (Good News translation)

These words from Thessalonians also offer guidance for faith living in 2014: “Do not quench the spirit nor ignore the words of the prophets, but test the value of faith. Hold fast to what is good and combat evil in all forms… Faith living is the result of faithful actions, no matter what life brings.”

A new year will include both positive and negative experiences. That much we can count on! There will be times of uncertainty, adversity and despair. As persons of faith, however, we can move toward each tomorrow with an assurance that we do not face any day alone. The Christmas season reminded us of a central truth for all seasons.  That truth is expressed in one word:   “Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.”   Isaac Watts expressed an appropriate prayer in his hymn for all ages:  “Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come; be thou our guide while life shall last, and our eternal home.”

May his words be our prayer as we begin this new year, and may you experience God’s blessings for the journey throughout 2014.