Beginning-Ending

​What is your favorite memory on New Year’s Day or your best-loved New Year’s Eve?  Jeremy shared with Impact’s congregation this morning, “You can stay up tonight and watch the same ball drop after a ten-second countdown as every year. Or you can go to bed and get a good rest. You won’t be missing anything.”  That got quite a laugh from people used to the tradition of staying up for the new year.

Some of you pray in the new year or make a celebratory toast with champagne or sparkling cider.  Some of you look forward to setting new goals, watching football bowl games, and enjoying a day off from work—celebrating with family and friends. Others are happy to see a challenging year finished, hoping the near year will bring better events and times.

​Meditation
Revelation 22:13--I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
           
Closure and new beginnings seem essential to people defined by time. Yet, St. Augustine in Augustine Confessions noted, “Thus while time is passing, it can be perceived and measured; but when it has passed, it cannot, for it is not.” It is important to remember that God is the author of time and yet is timeless. This eternal attribute is infused with undecaying, non-degrading power and a truth that is unfathomable to us who are tied to death.

So what are the implications for us who worship a timeless Creator?
1.  If we trust God, time should not be a source of anxiety; it is only a temporary earth-limited reality.
Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6,7)
2.  Year-end lessons and new-year goals work best when placed in open hands committed to living so God is glorified.
3.  What we do with the time we have does matter. Danielle Berry observed, “No one ever said on their deathbed, ‘Gee, I wish I had spent more time alone with my computer.’” Phrased differently, Brian Tracy says, “There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing.”
           
Happy New Year. May God use this next year to deepen your walk with Him, bless you, and use you for His timeless honor. 
 
Inspiration
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” ―Mother Theresa
 
©2023 Daniel York  ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  To receive these devotionals, go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed, subject to the inclusion of this copyright notice.     
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)