New Year’s Eve 2023. For some, an auspicious date – 123123. For many, a time to reflect on the past and look ahead to the next year. Some make resolutions – new year, new me. Others perhaps brace themselves for what the year will bring in terms of calamities, stormy weather, and instability on the world scene. And quite a few wish for breakthroughs – personally, professionally, financially, and spiritually.
My wife and I generally start a new year with a Bible text we ask the Lord to give us to serve as a spiritual theme for the year. And on New Year’s Eve, we reflect on how that text played out in our spiritual journey. Last year, it was Isaiah 41:10.
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
They contain a command – “fear not” – and a set of promises. I remember thinking: “Hmmm, I wonder what disasters this year will bring that we need this.”
There were a few, but more than anything there was the rather unexpected confrontation with an unmistakenly clear call to go to Kenya, and coming back with the enormous challenge to raise the funds to purchase Eagles Wings as a ministry center and move there. Raising more than half a million dollars and moving to Kenya have the potential to cause fear and dismay! But God’s promise in Isaiah 41:10 has embedded a peaceful quiet faith that He will strengthen us, help us, and uphold us.
As I was reflecting on this, I felt my theme verse for 2024 should be Isaiah 40:29-31, after which Eagles Wings is named:
“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; but 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.”
As far as fundraising and moving to another continent is concerned, I feel faint. It’s exhausting. And so we wait, in faith, on what God will do and how He will do it. The only thing we know is that our lack of fundraising skills in combination with a tight time frame is the perfect opportunity for Him to do miracles that will invigorate our spiritual strength. We hope in nothing else, and nothing less.
Such reflections on the threshold of a new year have important spiritual significance. God, of course, is not bound by time, and years are relatively meaningless in the kingdom of God. An Ethiopian sister told me this week that, according to their church calendar, we’re coming up on 2016. On the Jewish calendar, we are moving into the year 5,784! With God, a day is like a thousand years and vice versa.
But it contributes to our spiritual health to do some reflection, and the two days that we swap out our calendar for a new one is a good time to do it.
We can ask ourselves things like:
What are the highlights and lowlights of my experiences of the last year?
What have I learned about God and myself through those experiences?
How have I grown spiritually?
What are some things I need to correct?
Writing the answers to these questions down in our journals helps us remember milestones in our spiritual growth. We can then thank God for how we’ve grown and what we’ve learned, and ask Him to help us grow in areas where we need to improve.
Looking ahead to the New Year, we can ask God to help us know Him better, to order our lives around spending time with Him in prayer and the Word, and give us spiritual wisdom to make wise decisions and see everything that happens to us through His eyes.
God’s ultimate goal is to form Christ in us – that we may know Him better, love Him more deeply, and exhibit the fruit of the Spirit Who changes us in His image. Every year is another set of 365 (or 366) opportunities for that to happen. We can easily fall into the temptation to pour all our time and energy into becoming a better version of ourselves. All the life- and job coaches assembled on LinkedIn and elsewhere can tell you that and tell you how. But what God desires from us is that in the coming year, we get better at holding on to Him through daily communion and let Him do the rest.
What is your desire in your relationship with God this year?
Ask Him for a theme verse that He may apply to your life and help guide your growth in Him!
I guarantee you won’t regret it!