A New Year
It’s a New Year… 2007.
Looking back, it’s hard to believe how much I have changed this past year. And looking ahead, it’s hard to even comprehend how much God has in store for me. My mom and dad gave me the book My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers, this Christmas. Over the course of this past semester, one of my roommates spent every spare minute he had in the full works of Oswald Chambers. It was a big fat book that always sat in the corner of his desk.
One day, me and my three roommates were all in the room getting ready to call it a day… my roommate was laying on his bed reading from Oswald Chambers. I asked him to read aloud for a while. And I fell in love with the words of wisdom that flowed forth from a man who truly loved and knew God. Over the course of the fall semester, I frequently visited and revisited the full works of Oswald Chambers. It wasn’t until recently that one of my good friends gave me a beautiful copy of My Utmost for His Highest. And yes… my parents gave me a second copy of it this Christmas.
The way the book has written, each page of the book is set apart with a date for every day of the year. December 31st, I read the final page of the book… and I thought it was appropriate to share with you all.
New Years has always been (and continues to be) a time in which I can forget the past year and start with a clean slate. It’s always been a time in which I make New Year’s resolutions to start something different… or change something from the past. Don’t get me wrong - this can be a beautiful and awesome thing to do! But my focus for New Years was always forgetting the past… and starting afresh.
You may be wondering - what’s wrong with that? What is wrong with wanting to start afresh? The answer? Nothing…
But I wanted to share with you something that I read from Oswald Chambers the last day of the year 2006. The title of the entry for December 31st was “Yesterday.”
December 31st
YESTERDAY
“The God of Israel will be your rereward.” Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday. “God requireth that which is past.” At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “For the Lord will go before you.” This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our rereward. God’s hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for conscience.
Security for Today. “For ye shall not go out with haste.” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.
Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him.
I wasn’t going to write the whole thing out on here… but I can’t even begin to write a substitute for the words that are written there. These words may mean something different to you; but for me they are an amazing reminder to not forget the past year(s), but to allow them to shape me into the man of Christ that God desires me to be. My past doesn’t define who I am today. Christ defines who I am today. But my past does play a big role in who I am, the way I think, and the way I act…
“God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future.”
What an amazing truth! As the start of the year 2007 rolls into play, remember this… “Leave the Irreparable Past in His Hands, and step out into the Irresistable Future with Him.”
Published on 1 Jan 2007 at 12:01 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under Thoughts.
I would agree, your past doesn’t define who you are because your worth and value is found only in Christ. Although forgetting your past is foolish. It becomes part of your witness, your ministry, relating to others. It shapes and molds you into who you are to become in Christ. Even if your past isnt necessarily one to be proud of, you can look back and acknowledge God’s grace and faithfulness….everything is for his glory!
Olivia on 3 Jan 2007 at 12:26 pm.
thanks for your thoughts, Olivia… always. :) I want people to see and understand that truth - that our identity lies in Christ, not who we once were or what we once did.
Philip Codington on 3 Jan 2007 at 2:21 pm.
ecclesiastes 3 says, ‘he has made everything beautiful in its time…whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account…’ and then at the end in chapter 12: ‘remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come…For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.’ I guess it is quite amazing to view this alongside psalm 32 where it says ‘blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.’ something i feel really challenged to aspire to i suppose.Amy
Amy Mulholland on 4 Jan 2007 at 7:01 am.