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In God’s arrangement of the universe, the passage of time is marked by days, months, seasons, and years. We experience each interval of twenty-four hours a day, around thirty days a month, and several months a season, without interruption.
Yet when the year begins to wind down, we often feel surprised at how quickly the time has gone by and wonder where the past 365 days went.
In the busyness of our lives, it would be easy to just let the year come to an end without thinking too much about it. But the end of the year is a unique opportunity to set aside a special time for personal prayer and fellowship with the Lord about the year we just lived through. As we open our hearts to Him, we can conclude the year in a meaningful way and prepare ourselves for the new year ahead.
As we begin our dedicated time with the Lord and open our hearts to Him, He has the opportunity to shine on us and make us aware of any sins we haven’t yet dealt with.
Since the sins we commit disrupt our fellowship with the Lord, we can’t afford to let them go. We need to confess our sins to Him.
1 John 1:9 says:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
When we confess our sins, we experience God’s forgiveness and cleansing. It’s good to keep short accounts with the Lord and not let unconfessed sins accumulate. We don’t want to carry anything that negatively affects our walk with the Lord into the new year. By dealing with any unresolved sins, we can begin the new year in a positive way.
In our time with the Lord, we can consider how He has cared for us, both materially and spiritually, during this past year. This inspires in us a sense of thankfulness as we recall how the Lord has been our Shepherd, caring for us without fail during both our difficult circumstances and joyous occasions.
As we recall instances of God’s faithfulness, we can testify as the prophet Jeremiah did in Lamentations 3:22-23:
“It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed, for His compassions do not fail; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
Every morning during this past year, whatever condition we were in, we were met with God’s tender compassions. Reflecting on the details of our year causes us to see His great faithfulness toward us, in matters big and small. Surely thanksgiving and praises to Him will fill our hearts.
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If we spend time to consider the Lord’s lovingkindness, compassions, and faithfulness, we’ll surely realize again how great His love is for us. His love even caused Him to die for us so we can be forgiven and washed from our sins and enjoy fellowship with Him.
Through all the ups and downs of our year, whether we realized it or not, God never stopped loving us. As Romans 8:38-39 tells us:
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We can rest securely knowing that God will always love us, and that nothing will ever be able to separate us from His love. As we consider God’s great love for us, our hearts are filled with love for Him. We can thank Him for loving us and tell Him again and again that we love Him.
During this time of fellowship with the Lord, we can also offer a fresh consecration to Him. This simply means that we give every aspect of ourselves and our lives to Him. Consecrating ourselves to the Lord keeps us walking in His way and gives Him the room to grow in us and work in us. Our consecration also brings us into a fresh enjoyment of all that God is.
Romans 12:1 says:
“I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.”
On the cusp of a new year, we can be reminded of the compassions of God and consecrate ourselves to the Lord. We can pray something simple like this:
“Lord Jesus, thank You for Your faithfulness, Your love, and Your compassions. Lord, I love You. I offer myself to You again. I give this new year to You. Lord, I allow You the freedom to work in me.”
In Psalm 90, Moses spoke of the brevity of human life. In verse 12, he asked God:
“Teach us then to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
It’s healthy to consider how long we might have on this earth, and how fleeting human life truly is. Verse 10 of this Psalm says, “The days of our years are seventy years, or, if because of strength, eighty years.” We should ask the Lord to grant us mercy that each of our days would count in His eyes.
Our fellowship with the Lord on this matter should cause us to realize the preciousness of each day. Each day of the new year before us is full of fresh opportunities to know Him, grow in His life, enjoy Him in His Word, and experience Him as the One who lives in us. By spending this time in fellowship with Him, we can be reminded anew that we’re living on this earth for God’s purpose.
We pray that each of us would have a good conclusion to this year by setting aside a special time with the Lord, and that we would all start the new year with a fresh consecration to Him.
An excellent way to begin the new year is to start reading the Bible consistently. If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.
Bibles for America (BfA) was founded in 2000 by a group of believers who wanted to give away free Bibles throughout the United States. They realized that many people in this country may not read the Bible mainly because they don’t understand what it says.
Because they themselves had received immeasurable spiritual help, light, and life from the Recovery Version of the Bible, they chose this unique study Bible to give away. Due to cost, they decided to give away just the New Testament Recovery Version so it could get into the hands of as many people as possible. This continues to be our central mission today, nearly 20 years later.
Not only was the Recovery Version of the Bible deeply respected and appreciated by the founders of BfA, it was recently recognized by the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. This museum documents the history of the Bible and the impact it has had on the world for thousands of years. The Recovery Version was added to the Museum Collection and featured on its social media accounts as the “Artifact of the Day” on September 20.
To date, BfA has given away over 1.6 million free copies of the New Testament Recovery Version. We’ve received overwhelming feedback from recipients telling us how this version has helped them to understand God’s Word as never before. Here are just two comments:
“I received my copy of the New Testament Recovery Version today. I spent a lot of time this afternoon reading the Bible text and the explanatory notes. It's impressive. Again, my thanks; it is an excellent study Bible.”
—P.K., Brookings, OR
“I have always wanted to understand the Bible more deeply. I would read study Bibles and they helped a little. But reading the Recovery Version has taken me to a higher level. I finally feel like I am eating the meat, not just the milk of the Word.”
—G.G., New York, NY
We’re so thankful to the Lord that people throughout this country continue to gain a deeper understanding of the Word of God by using the Recovery Version. Don’t miss the opportunity to get your free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version from BfA today! You can order your free copy here. If you’ve already received one, feel free to share this offer with others so they can also order a free copy.
As Christians, we desire a closer relationship with God. Whatever our experience was last year, thank the Lord, we can freshly give ourselves to daily pursue Christ this year. At the beginning of this new year, we thought we’d share seven ways for us to have a new beginning with the Lord.
The points below include inspiring and motivating quotes from well-known Bible teachers, preachers, Christian workers, and authors.
“If you would learn to appreciate Christ more, read this book [the Bible], frequently and prayerfully.”—H.A. Ironside
To have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, it’s essential that we love Him. And our love and appreciation for Him issues from our knowing Him and what He’s done for us. The more we know Him by reading His Word, the more we love Him. We can start this new year by asking the Lord to renew our love for Him and to give us a deep longing for Him in His Word so that we wouldn’t be satisfied until we find Him, see Him, and touch Him in His Word. This is a prayer the Lord will gladly answer.
“I never have seen a man or woman who spent fifteen or twenty minutes alone with God every day that didn’t have the dew all the while. I have never known one to backslide, either.”—D.L. Moody
We simply need to spend time with the One we love. There is no substitute for quality time spent alone with Him, free from distractions, especially early in the morning. By spending time with Him first, before we get involved with the affairs of our day, we’ll experience Him as the refreshing dew in our fellowship with Him. It’s only by taking time to be with Him that we’ll know Christ, grow in our relationship with Him, and grow in His life.
“The ‘good food’ is…the food of the Word of God, for as food builds up the tissues of the body, repairs waste, and preserves us in health, so the Word of God is the complete food of the soul.”—W.H. Griffith Thomas
The Bible is our spiritual food. In Jeremiah 15:16 the prophet said, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word became to me the gladness and joy of my heart.” We must daily come to the Word hungry to taste and enjoy God, to eat and drink Him, and to be nourished and satisfied by Him. Feeding on His Word in this way imparts His life into us. If we don’t have an appetite for God in the Word, we can simply ask Him to give us one.
“Points of truth however interesting, scriptural knowledge however profound and extensive, Biblical criticism however accurate and valuable, may all leave the heart barren and the affections cold. We want to find Christ in the Word; and, having found Him, to feed on Him by faith.”—C.H. Mackintosh
When we come to the Bible merely for knowledge or guidance, it’s very possible to miss the Lord. The Lord Jesus said in John 5:39-40, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” When we come to the Bible, we must come to contact the Lord Himself and turn our heart back to Him. We should not separate the Word from Christ, but come to find the Lord in His Word.
As we find the Lord in the Word, we can talk to Him about what we’re reading. We can also confess our sins to Him as His light in the Word shines on us. We can sing to Him, praise Him, and worship Him with what we find in the Word. Our time reading the Bible should be a time of fellowship with the Lord.
“For all reading should be joined with meditation and prayer. Read a little, pray and meditate much.”—John Wesley
Often we try to read too much at one time, or we read His Word too quickly. This isn’t the healthiest way to take in the Word, just as eating a huge meal too quickly isn’t so healthy for us physically. As with physical eating, it’s much better spiritually to take a small portion, chew it, and even digest it by prayer. When we chew on the Word in this way, it nourishes us and “sticks to our ribs” throughout the day.
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“The vital connection between the word and prayer is one of the simplest and earliest lessons of the Christian life.”—Andrew Murray
Our time with the Lord in His Word should be filled with conversational praying and the audible reading of the Scriptures. As we read, we can pray over the Word, even using it as our prayer. In this way, speaking the Scripture becomes our prayer to God and reading it becomes our listening to Him.
“The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord: but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished.”—George Mueller
Rather than being a cold routine or duty, our time with the Lord in His Word is a time to delight ourselves in the Lord. This time should make our hearts happy in Him and come out of our single and pure desire for God Himself. Instead of seeking for biblical knowledge or answers to prayer, in this time we must learn to linger in His presence to enjoy Him in an intimate way.
This year, may we all have a new beginning with the Lord and continue to develop our personal relationship with Him by spending time with Him. May we learn how to nourish ourselves in His Word ever more deeply and renew and enrich our daily, personal times of fellowship with Him.
