Anno Domini… Latin for “in the year of our Lord”, a phrase not too often used in these latter days, but one that always applies to each new year that we receive.
This however is not why I am writing.
This year, 2015, has been a very strange and difficult one for me, as a writer, as a Christian, and as a human. But this is not why I am writing.
No, I write to show forth who God is, not who I am, or think I am. So I write to you this very early New Year’s letter, to show forth God’s enduring faithfulness.
Oftentimes it can seem to us that each new day comes and goes without change, without incident. Time flows on, and as the years go by, each one seems shorter and shorter in retrospect, regardless of the trials and hardships that may have taken place within that year. Even the good things go unnoticed as each year draws to a close.
So in that spirit I wish to address all of you my dear Friends, with this thought: God shows His faithfulness more in the monotony than in the momentous.
This may seem strange, but I will explain in due course.
To preface this, I wish to share one thing from my time in 1 Corinthians on New Year’s Eve:
1 Corinthians 10:13 (and I steal only a part of this wonderful verse)
“God is faithful.”
This is what this whole year has been about for me, learning this statement of fact from God’s Word. This is a statement of His character, and one that all too often I fear we (most certainly I) forget.
Anytime we sin, we forget or refuse to believe this simple statement. Anytime we worry, we discount one of God’s Holy Perfections. And anytime we complain we go the same route as the Israelites, though they saw His faithfulness firsthand in incredible, physical ways.
This is an essential part of God’s Character:
“Exodus 34:6 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
How does this apply to the year behind and the year ahead? Well as we reflect on what is behind and as we look forward to what lies ahead we must consider this constant: That God is working every day, in the monotony of life, in the highest mountains of pleasure and joy, in the lowest valleys of fear and pain, on the plateaus of life where everything seems strangely calm and nothing seems to be happening. We must know this truth for this next year: That God’s work will not cease until the Day He has ordained, and that He is faithful to bring us all to that day regardless of where we may be in life’s walk.
If this thought does not walk with us throughout this next year we will languish in our own sin and worthlessness. We make resolutions but cannot keep them, so we give up, and go back to the comfortable life of giving in, not thinking that God is faithfully working to make us more like Christ regardless of our resolutions. We go on with the year working, and schooling and living life, not thinking that God’s ultimate plan and appointed Day are drawing near ever more quickly each passing moment.
If we do not believe that God is faithful, then why would we believe any of His promises?
This is the trap we must not fall into this new year of life so dearly entrusted to us by our Faithful Creator.
We must renew our minds with this daily, or God’s promises of true life in Christ (John 10:7-10), freedom from sin (John 8:34-36), strength to fight temptations (1 Corinthians 10:13), our eternal inheritance in Christ (1 Peter 1:3-9), our eventual freedom from all suffering (Romans 8) and all manner of God’s very great and precious promises will hold no meaning if we do not believe that He will carry them out.
We must know that God is faithful to grow in our faith.
Consider how to deal with the lowest points in our lives, for sufferings are sure to come in this new year. The author of Lamentations had much more cause than you to fear, and to lament, but this thought assured his faith in his Lord:
Lamentations 3:19-24 “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.””
And when your walk with God is at its highest point this truth still must rest within you, consider this encouragement from the author of Hebrews:
Hebrews 10:19-25
“Therefore, brothers,[a] since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
Now consider this by way of application: How can we recall this wondrous truth to mind in this next year?
Here is the way I have learned:
Consider this verse from the book of Jeremiah, the context (in simplest terms) is that Jeremiah the prophet is contending with God’s rebellious people, and as their sin continues their punishment is secured as God’s holy and just wrath against their sin is incurred. Under this punishment the people begin to think and to say that God has abandoned them, that He has somehow gone back on His promises to His people (though it was they who turned their backs on Him [see Jeremiah 2]). This is God’s reply to his people through Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 33:23-26 “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Have you not observed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two clans that he chose’? Thus they have despised my people so that they are no longer a nation in their sight. Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.”
Do you understand what that means my dear Friends? Do you not see the glory in God’s answer?
I will ask a question: What is the most constant thing you can think of in this world?
Life, death, other more human things, hunger, thirst…
How about the cycle of the day and night? Has there ever in living memory been a day where the sun has not risen in the sky? Can you think of one? Has there ever been a day that it has not set to cool the earth and give us time to rest?
Can you give me a single instance where God’s appointed cycle for the day and the night has ceased or been off kilter? No?
That is what this verse is saying…
The sun and the moon will cease their God-appointed dance before God will be faithless.
The Great Lights of Creation will cease to move in their God-appointed places before God will fail to fulfill His promises.
God is always working, God is always Faithful. And if each day when we see the sun in the sky, moving in God’s time, and according to His command since the dawn of Creation, then we will know that His promises cannot and will not fail.
All of those promises I listed earlier and more will be fulfilled in their fullest measure by our enduringly and eternally Faithful God.
Trust in Him, and if you do not know Him, run to His feet and repent of your sinful ways, humbly ask for His forgiveness and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ who has paid debt for your sins in full with His own Blood.
Until then my Friends, in this my first writing of the New Year:
Anno Fidelis Domini--In the Year of Our Faithful LORD...
--The Scribe
