Monday 2 January 2012

Read Joshua 1:1-9

 

Moses My servant is dead.  Now therefore arise. –Joshua 1:2

 

During our church’s New year’s Eve service, we say this prayer together: “Father, we surrender this past year and give it to You.  We give you our failures, our regrets, and our disappointments, for we have no more use for them.  Make us now a new people, forgetting what lies behind and pressing on towards what lies ahead of us.

 

“We give You all our hopes and dreams for the future.  Purify them by Your Spirit so that our wills shall truly reflect Your will for us.  “As we stand on the threshold of another year, encourage us by our successes of the past, challenge us by the power of your Word, and guide us by the presence of Your Holy Spirit.”

 

In every transition, it’s good to look both ways.  When Joshua took over the leadership of Israel, God told him to consider the past and the future: “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to  them” (Joshua 1:2).  Then He promised, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you…..  Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord, your God is with you wherever you go” (vs 5-9).

 

With confidence in God, we can look back and look ahead, then walk boldly onto a new year. —David McCasland

Forgive us, Lord, for failures past,

Then help us start anew

With strength and courage to obey

And closely follow You.   -Sper

 

The victories of the past give courage for the future.

 

Prayer:

¨ Praise God for a New Year in which we can continue to serve and worship Him.

 

¨ Seek God’s face now, as to how you can become a brighter light to glorify Him in your local church.