“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” ~ Titus 2:13
“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God… Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.” ~ II Peter 3:12-14
A new year is now upon us, and it brings mixed emotions for many people. Some look forward with anticipation, others may feel dread, hoping the new year will not bring more of whatever they may have dealt with in the previous year. Whatever the case, a new year does bring a sense of renewal for most, a fresh start, a chance to try again in whatever areas we believe we need to improve in. Perhaps, if you have already established good habits and have achieved the goals you set for yourself, a new year is an opportunity to reach farther, to grow more. A new year may give you a sense of renewed hope.
For true, born-again believers, a new year should bring reflection on the truth that this could very well be the year that the Lord Jesus Christ will return to take us Home as He promised! (John 14:1-3; I Thessalonians 4:13-18) When we grow weary in the day-to-day living of work responsibilities, financial pressures, relationship issues, and health concerns, let’s not forget that the promise and hope we have of eternal life is just as real and as sure as it has ever been! ~ “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” ~ Numbers 23:19
“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” ~ I John 5:13
For those who have not yet repented of their sin and have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, please do not put that off another day! If you believe or even just wonder if the story of Noah and the judgement of a worldwide flood in the book of Genesis is true, stop and think how people felt the moment the rain started. Only Noah and his family survived; eight people out of the estimated millions that were on earth at the time.* When God closed the door of the ark (Genesis 7:16), it was too late for anyone to change their mind, to decide that they believed after all; to beg for their life and hope they would be allowed to enter the ark. During the 120 years that it took for Noah to build the ark, people had ample opportunity to hear about the coming judgment and God’s offer of hope and forgiveness for anyone who would repent. II Peter 2:5 calls him, “a preacher of righteousness.” During the seven days before the rain began, but the door was shut (Genesis 7:1, 4), I can imagine that so many continued to mock and scoff and say things like, “We knew he was crazy! Nothing is happening! What a fool; shut in there with all those animals, and for what?” Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, may very well have been reassuring each other and their families that everything was fine; nothing had changed, and life was continuing on as usual, except for the very large ark now sitting there for people to look at. But the moment the skies grew dark, the winds increased, the thunder sounded, and the rain began to fall, I can only imagine the sense of panic and unimaginable fear and chaos that took the place of the mocking and laughter and unbelief. So many people mock and scoff the same way now about the things we anticipate as believers; the things that preachers have been proclaiming since Jesus ascended into Heaven after He arose from the grave and walked on the earth for 40 days. (Acts 1:3, 9-11)
PLEASE do not make that same mistake! The Bible says that, “…now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” ~ “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts…” (II Corinthians 6:2; Hebrews 3:7-8) If you have not repented of your sin and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, it’s not too late! The start of this new year can be the time when you gain the peace of forgiveness of sin and the security of knowing for sure where you will spend eternity. Once the time has come for true believers to be taken out of this world, it will be too late if you reject God’s free gift of salvation now, just as it was too late for anyone outside the ark once the door was closed. (II Thessalonians 2:10-12)
At the start of this new year, you can look ahead with anticipation and hope, knowing that your eternity is secure in Jesus Christ, or you can choose to look ahead with a false sense of security and fear; the choice is yours.
*Please note: while we cannot know for sure what the exact population was at the time of the flood, many different guesses have been made based on the timeline in the first few chapters of the Bible, the extended lifespans of people before the flood, pre-flood conditions that would have impacted longevity, etc. https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/pre-flood-population/
Quiet Contemplations 