Scripture

Seeds of Faith

NEW HOPE FOR A NEW YEAR

Written By: Willard M. Aldrich

Summitted by: Earnest Costilow

   We live in a pretty discouraged old world, and we look in vain for a change for the better in the passing of the Old year and the ushering in of the New.

   Our wistful hope that ushering the New Year may see the world outlook brightened and our own immediate circumstance improved finds little to encourage it in the worsening international situation and in the steadily deteriorating political, economic and moral life of the nation.

   If happiness cannot be found in the improvement of our circumstances- and it cannot-then there must be a change in the individual which with enable him to rise above his circumstances and to be master in them if not of them.

Such a change in the individual as will change his basic outlook upon and appreciation of life is a matter of experience to millions who have put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Saviour. They have found peace of heart so fundamental and abiding that it cannot be shaken by the storms of life; they have discovered the secret of joy and happiness in the life of trusting and obeying God, and they have gained such a new evaluation of the meaning of life that all things have veritably “become new” unto them.

   The Apostle Paul expresses this marvelous change in II Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

You may enter the New Year a new man in Christ Jesus. Then happiness and success in life will not depend upon a “new deal,” government aid and healthcare in the New Year, but upon a new life fully surrendered to Jesus Christ, manifesting itself with new desires, 

new aspirations and new powers to achieve. And the “ new man,” born from above through faith in Jesus Christ, will not only be able to face the New Year, but God himself. You may meet Him as forgiven, cleansed and commendable in the virtues and merits of Christ your Saviour. Make Him your Saviour and your Confidence in the New Year!

Standing at the Portal:

By: Frances Ridley Havergal

Standing at the portal

   Of the opening year,

Words of comfort meet us

   Hushing every fear,

Spoken through the silence

   By our Father’s Voice,

Tender, strong and faithful,

   Making us rejoice.

‘I, the Lord, am with thee,

   Be thou not afraid; 

I will help and strengthen,

   Be thou not dismayed:

Yea, I will uphold thee

   With my own right hand;

Thou art called and chosen

   In my sight to stand.’

For the year before us,

   O what rich supplies!

For the poor and needy

   Living streams shall rise. 

For the sad and sinful

   Shall His grace abound;

For the faint and feeble

   Perfect strength be found.

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