Some thoughts for this New Year
Now that we are settling in to the new year some folk start to look forward to longer days of daylight and warmer weather!
Last week I sat down to plan our summer holiday. We usually go to France and travel by car so there are many different bookings to make.
When I had finished I opened up my Bible to consider what I might use as a theme for Sunday.
I happened to open the Bible at James 3 : 13 and read this
‘Now listen to me, you that say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to a certain city, where we will stay a year and go into business and make a lot of money.” You don't even know what your life tomorrow will be! You are like a puff of smoke, which appears for a moment and then disappears. What you should say is this: “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”
In Latin that means Deo valente: God willing.
Too often we take tomorrow for granted!
Because of the uncertainty of tomorrow there are two things at least that we ought to do without delay.
1.Be right with God. He wants a close relationship with us now. All our tomorrows are safe in his hands when we trust him for what tomorrow may bring.
It is impossible to put into words the contentment that that kind of trust in God can bring!
2.Be right with other people. When we have had a quarrel or spoken a nasty word or pushed an argument to the extent that we have lost a friend we often think, ‘I'll sort it out tomorrow’.
Don't leave it to tomorrow for you may not have the opportunity to sort it out. Sort it out now.
Everything we do or plan in life should be prefixed by God willing! Deo Valente!