“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow….”  Matthew 6:34

“I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe…” John 14:29

“Listen to me whom I have called…….I am He, I am the First and I am the Last…I alone am God”  Isiah 48:12

A year has come and is almost gone.  We spend much of this last day of the year, looking back, sometimes in regret at what has happened; sometimes in regret that what has happened is ending.  We also look to the future.  Sometimes that peering into the future can fill us with great fear at the tragedies that might unfold.  Other times that peering can bring about much anticipation at the wonders which are to come.

There are many things out in society that exacerbate this process of remembering and prognosticating.  So many programs are both reviewing the previous 364 days and telling us what we should feel.  Those same programs are looking to the future and telling us what we should be worrying about, planning for, expecting to happen.

This can be the one day each year where it is extremely difficult to focus on what is happening during this 24 hour period.  So knowing that your day is probably very full, I will be brief (I know there were a few “Thank God” at that last phrase) concerning some things the bible, Christ and the Father tell us.

Jesus Christ is very clear about how we should treat this day.  We should treat this day the same as any other.  To look into the past is to spend time contemplating things for which we have no ability to change.  In fact the enemy can use the past to dredge up our failures as well as insults and injuries inflicted by others to argue that life is futile.  To attempt to see the future in any aspect of clarity or definiteness is wasted energy.  The future is only in God’s control and we will never exist in it.  We will only exist in today.  So again, the enemy can use our fixation on the future to keep us cowering in fear or so excited in anticipation that we completely disregard what God has done for us today.

Yet Jesus Christ also knows us.  He knows that we see ourselves in a linear existence.  So He told us things about the future that we would remember He said in the past.  Why?  So that we might believe.  Not only believe the specific thing that He said: (I am going to the Father), but also to believe that Jesus Christ, unlike us, has perfect knowledge of what is going to happen.  If He said it and those things He promised, will come to pass.

Then there is the mystery of God.  The God who told Moses; I AM.  Though I can not explain it, not truly even comprehend it; God’s existence is not a linear progression.  Last January 1, He is there.  Today, He is here.  December 31st, 2014, He is there.  It is not that He was or will be, like we are.  He is.  That means He is in control, completely and unequivocally.

With that knowledge; what should you and I be doing?  Understanding.  Understanding that God is with us completely.  Responding.  It is not that we should never look back or look forward.  It is the attitude with which we cast our gaze back and forth that truly matters.  When we look back, we do so with words of praise and adoration, knowing that whatever the circumstances; God got us through it.  When we look forward, do so with hope and thanksgiving, knowing that God is in control of all things and we will never be forsaken.

Dear brothers and sisters, I pray for blessings, strength, joy, peace and love for you in this new year.  What I know is that our God; I AM, Is and that is more than any of us will ever need.

Our Most Gracious and Heavenly Father, as we move into a new year, we acknowledge that the year is not new for you.  Where we are going, You are there.  Where we are, You are there.  Where we’ve been, You are there.  Thank you Father.  Pour out Your Spirit on each of us that we will rest in Your assurance of I AM, no matter what earthly circumstances we may face.  And may our response to You be praises on our lips and love in our hearts.  In Jesus Christ we pray.  Amen