A Fresh Start

Read: Joshua 1:1-9

Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. --- Joshua 1:9

The Bible In One Year:
Revelation 19-22

They stand in the cold by the thousands in Times Square, New York City. What draws them to that place? There's no sporting event or rock concert. There's just a huge lighted ball that drops down a pole on top of a building. It takes only a few seconds, and it hardly seems worth fighting traffic and subway crunch to see --- except that it happens on New Year's Eve.

Why have we created a holiday over such a nonevent? Other holidays celebrate famous birthdays or historical milestones or something. New Year's Eve just celebrates the passage of time. We make such a fuss because it signals the end of an old era and the beginning of a new one. The old year's problems and struggles become a dim memory when we think of getting a fresh start.

It must have been something like that for the Israelites who stood with Joshua and looked at the new era ahead of them [Joshua 1:1-9]. Behind them were 40 years of wandering in the desert. Ahead was a land of milk and honey. And best of all, they had God's promise that He would be with them.

As we stand with our back to the past 12 months and our face toward the new year, we can have hope because we too can be sure of God's help. That makes the prospect of a new year worth celebrating! --- Dave Branon

Though I know not what awaits me ---
What the future has in store,
Yet I know that God is faithful,
For I've proved Him oft before. --- Anon.

WE CAN TRUST OUR ALL-KNOWING GOD FOR THE UNKNOWN FUTURE.