Monday, December 31, 2018

A Good Word--For the New Year

You shall not go out with haste...for the Lord will
go before you, and the God of Israel will be your
rear guard--Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday
"...God requires that which is past." (Ecl 3:15) 
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 yes-
terday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of our 
yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in or-
der to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth 
for the future. God reminds us of the past to protect 
us from a shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow
"The Lord will go before you." 
This is a gracious revelation, that God will send his 
forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep 
watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the 
same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were 
not our "rear guard." And God's hand reaches back to 
the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

Security for Today
"For you shall not go out in haste...
As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the 
haste of impetuous, forgetful delight nor with the quick-
ness of the impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out 
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 de-
structive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness of 
the future. Let the past sleep, but let is sleep on the bo-
som of Christ. Leave the broken Irreversible Past in His 
hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future IN HIM. 
Oswald Chambers

Reader, this was passed to me by a dear Russian friend.
It comes from My Utmost For His Highest on Dec 31.
Chambers has balanced our failures, our sorrows, with
our gracious God "who can and does transform de-
structive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness of
the future.' Open the scripture and spend time with Him
in this New Year, long enough to hear Him speak a per-
sonal word to you. Don't forget to write it down...





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