God is the God of new things! Every day is a “new” day! Jesus came proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom. When Christ appears and removes evil from the earth, God will create a “new heavens and new earth”.
Next week we will be celebrating a new year. Each new year is filled with possibilities and challenges. Some things that will happen will be out of our control! We need to pray for the peace and serenity to accept the things that we cannot change.
We also need to have the courage to change the things that we can and have the wisdom to know the difference! This comes from the serenity prayer and it goes to heart of our faith in a sovereign God and human responsibility.
The power of Christ in me gives me the ability to face any of life’s challenges. I can witness to the power of Christ over the past few months. We had no idea that Martha would get a stroke last September.
It was out of our control and even the doctors do not know why she had it! What I realized in the midst of this uncontrollable event is the courage to choose how to respond. Thank God for the presence of Christ!
He gave me the power to face this crisis and not be overwhelmed or go off the path of wisdom. God was gracious in giving my wife back to me and now I can celebrate each “new” day that the Lord has given us.
I look forward to “new” things that God is going to do in our midst. My prayer is that we will celebrate the good things and find the power of Christ to face the hard things.
As we go into this New Year, may we remember that God has promised us a great future. Each day we move forward to the fulfillment of that promise.
Pastor Fred