Living the Christian life in the new year
It is probably cliche to even draw attention to the fact that it’s that beginning of a new year and that time in the calendar when many of us make resolutions we hope to keep for the next twelve months. Whether it’s a long or short list, made on your own, or with a spouse, are still deciding what you will change, or maybe even have resolved to no longer make resolutions, it seems that at new beginnings we can’t help but look towards the future. There appears to be something deeply human about this phenomenon of looking ahead.
The Christian gospel is one of hope and the promise for a future. Whether we find this in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Or 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” to name just a few.
This great truth is an essential part of the Christian faith. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we are given a list of men and women of whom the world was not worthy. Men and women who followed God because they believed the promises he had made. Hebrews 11:1 reads, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Commenting on this verse New Testament scholar and pastor Geerhardus Vos wrote that faith “is the organ for apprehension of unseen and future realities, giving access to and contact with another world. It is the hand stretched out through the vast distances of space and time, whereby the Christian draws to himself the things far beyond, so that they become actual to him.”
As we consider goals for our lives, relationships, families, friends, and work let us remember the promises of God and orient our hope towards Him.
Rev. Will Stockdale is Ministry to State's Director of D.C. ministry.