A New Year Challenge

The McDonald Family @ Christmas 2008

This is a slightly modified version of a note I sent to our church yesterday. I wanted to wish you all, my readers, a Happy New Year. In a way, 2008 has become only a memory. Now we all stand at a proverbial fork in the road. We have before us an opportunity. Or, as Malachi taught us in the series I recently completed, we are faced with a challenge to live for the Lord.

We have been given an opportunity to affect what the next year of our life will be like; and my prayer is that you look forward to 2009 with a renewed sense of hope and excitement – even anticipation.

As you reflect upon the past year, take a moment to consider your personal successes – and your failures. With God’s help, you can use your experiences as resources by which you can glean wisdom for the days ahead.

For the sake of the Gospel, this coming year, dare to dream a little bigger and work a little harder. For the sake of your family, choose to laugh a little longer and hold each of your loved ones a little closer.

In 2008 many of us said good-bye to dear friends and family who went home to live with the Lord in Glory. In 2008, many of us welcomed precious little ones into our lives, as God blessed many households with the next generation.

If you’re reading this, God has given you another day to live for Him. Although it is profitable to examine the past for the purpose of better glorifying God in the future, do not waste the coming days looking back upon 2008 with longing or regret. The Word admonishes us to be responsible as we consider the path ahead. Consider the wise words of the Apostle Paul who said in Philippians 3:13-14, “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I am confident that the Lord has many good things in store for you this year. I am excited for what He will do in your families. And I look with expectation to see what He will do through you in your local community as He uses you as an instrument to proclaim His Truth.

May this short note serve as a reminder to you of the high calling that rests on you as a child of God and the wonderful privilege you have to make the most of the coming year.

About these ads