Were you pleased to see the end of 2025 as you wished for a better future this year?
We probably all made mistakes, times we would like to forget, health issues that worried us, friends or family we lost during the year who we miss.
The tradition of making new year resolutions, which probably most of us forget or don’t manage to keep or just don’t do at all, is said to go back to the ancient Babylonians 4000 years ago — so they have been around a very long time.
The start of a new near does provide us with the opportunity of a fresh start, a new beginning when we promise ourselves that we will do better than last year, when we can put behind us the things we would rather forget from last year, when we want to be determined to improve our lives and lifestyle with a clean sheet.
When we make a concerted effort not to repeat last year’s mistakes.
As this new year starts we hope for good health, to stay safe and to try to do more for ourselves and others.
Beginning a new year may be likened to an artist who is looking at a blank canvas. What is he going to paint?
A still-life, a lovely rural scene, someone’s portrait? Or will it be an abstract with splashes of colour that no-one understands?
What will we make of this year? What images will we paint on our life canvasses?
No matter what, we have the opportunity to make this year different, though for all the positives that may be ours ,we will face challenges, struggles and difficulties.
However, we will not face these hard times alone.
Many of us are fortunate to have the loving support of family and friends, but most important of all we have a God who loves us and cares deeply for us, who keeps us safe in the shelter of His arms, and whose strength is more than sufficient to carry us through the tough times.
God’s promise to us is that He will renew our strength. Isaiah 40:29 & 30 says, “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.”
And here is the promise that doesn’t depend on anyone’s age or strength or endurance. Isaiah 40:31, “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
We wait, look for and hope and in faith look to our Lord and Saviour. And as we turn in faith to Him, He strengthens us. In 1 Samuel 18:6 David “strengthened himself in the Lord his God”.
And so can we in this new year.
Rosemary Hunt
Kyabram Baptist Church
23°C