A New Year – A New Page in Life

A new year has started. A new leaf in the time-book of earth’s history. What are we going to make of this new year? Whatever we do I hope everyone will make better use of their time than ever before. We are one year closer to Jesus coming and a step nearer to heaven. Time is closing for this earth.

Shall we not in this new year seek to correct the errors of the past? It behooves us individually to cultivate the grace of Christ, to be meek and lowly of heart, to be firm, unwavering, steadfast in the truth; for thus only can we advance in holiness, and be made fit for the inheritance of the saints in light. Let us begin the year with an entire renunciation of self; let us pray for clear discernment, that we may understand our Saviour’s claims upon us, and that we may always and everywhere be witnesses for Christ (Signs of the Times, Jan. 4, 1883). {Lift Him Up p. 15}

As you enter upon a new year, let it be with an earnest resolve to have your course onward and upward. Let your life be more elevated and exalted than it has hitherto been. Make it your aim not to seek your own interest and pleasure, but to advance the cause of your Redeemer. Remain not in a position where you ever need help yourself, and where others have to guard you to keep you in the narrow way. You may be strong to exert a sanctifying influence upon others. You may be where your soul’s interest will be awakened to do good to others, to comfort the sorrowful, strengthen the weak, and to bear your testimony for Christ whenever opportunity offers. Aim to honor God in everything, always and everywhere. Carry your religion into everything. (My Life Today p.369}

A new year of our life has started. A new page is turned in the book of the recording angel. What will be recorded upon its pages? Shall it be marked with neglect of God, with unfulfilled duties? God forbid. Let a record be written there which we will not be ashamed to have revealed to all men and angels. Let us seek to move ever onward and upwards. Let us put aside everything that might keep us from entering heaven. Let us keep our eyes upon Jesus lest we sink amid the cares of this world.

Let us enter upon the new year with a clean record. Let faults be corrected. Let bitterness and malice be uprooted. Let right triumph over wrong. Let envy and jealousy between brethren be put away. Heartfelt, honest confession will heal grave difficulties. Then, with the love of God in the soul, there may flow from sincere lips the greeting, “I wish you a happy New Year.” {RH, January 3, 1882 par. 8}

Let us begin the new year by offering praise and thanksgiving to God, with the determination, through His grace, to consecrate our talents to His service. The love of God in the hearts of the members of the church will give them joy and peace and gladness, enabling them to live lives that will cause rejoicing among the angels of God. Will my brethren now arouse to do their work? The signs reveal to us that “the night cometh, in which no man can work.” The time is coming in which you can neither buy nor sell. That will be a serious time for the people of God. Now you can sell and give alms. Now you can send your treasure before you into heaven, and God calls for your means to advance his cause. Let this Christmas-time and the entering in of a new year testify to the zeal of God’s people. There has been a withholding from God of tithes and offerings. The question is asked, “Will a man rob God?” And the answer comes, “Ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?—In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.” Wonderful statement, and how true! Shall we humble our souls before God, and confess our sin in robbing him? Shall we be zealous and repent? Shall we redeem the failures of the past? “Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Shall we obey God, and bring in all our tithes and offerings, that there may be meat to supply the demands of souls hungering for the bread of life? God invites you to prove him now, as the old year draws to its close, and let the new year find us with God’s treasuries replenished. Let us literally prove the Lord, by bringing all the tithes and offerings into his store house, and let us repent of our robbery toward him. He tells us that he will open the windows of heaven, and pour us out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. He pledges his word, “I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field saith the Lord of hosts” Thus his word is our assurance that he will so bless us that we shall have still larger tithes and offerings to bestow. “Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.” {RH, December 18, 1888 par. 19}

I wish you a happy new year. Let us put away everything like distrust and want of faith in Jesus forever. Let us commence a life of simple child-like trust, not relying upon feeling but upon faith, and ‘lay aside every weight and run with patience the race set before us.’ AMEN.