What will God do in the coming year? What will life be like in the next 12 months? What changes or additions will be made in your life? It’s impossible to tell. No man knows the future — no palm reader, no crystal ball, no horoscope, and no biorhythm chart. Many will be attempting today to peer into the future to see what events might occur in the next 12 months. In fact, this morning’s newspaper was filled with conjecture about sporting events, local and national politics, and pop-cultural happenings.
But no one knows the future. Tea leaves are only good for making tea, not revealing the future. Fortune cookies are only helpful as an after dinner favor, not for informing of impending fortune. Only God knows the future. And everything He might say about the future has already been said in the Bible.
That being said, we do know that there are a variety of kinds of circumstances that we undoubtedly will face in life in the coming 12 months. We do not know the specifics, but we can anticipate the generalities. We know that we will be happy and laugh, we will be sad and afraid, we will be weary and have to sleep, and will face some kind of illness — anything from a simple cold or allergy to cancer or heart disease. We will hear of good news and favor for others and we will hear tragic tales of despair and feel hopeless to help. We know, that despite all our best intentions on this first morning of the year, that we will sin.
So how should we prepare for the inevitabilities of this year? First, a general principle, and then some specific actions. Remember that in all the events of the coming year, God is weaving them together to produce your spiritual maturity. For believers, God is far more concerned in making our character godly than our lives comfortable. And He uses all the circumstances of our lives to produce conformity to Christ (Romans 8:28-29). He is concerned that we glorify Him (1 Cor. 10:31) and please Him (2 Cor. 5:9) more than we ourselves are glorified or pleased. He is working to move us from infancy to maturity (1 Pet. 2:2-5). So whatever happens today or this year, we do well to ask something like, “what kind of response will demonstrate that I desire to be like Christ? What will be the fruit and evidence that I am living to glorify God and not myself?”
There are also a number of events that, while we do not know the specifics, we do know in general what will happen. How should we prepare to respond in these? Scripture gives us a number of principles to apply; let me suggest just a few to prime the pump of your own meditation:
In the coming year, you will sin (Prov. 20:9). The sin may be sung in a “major” key, or perhaps a “minor” key, but it is sin nonetheless and is therefore worthy of the discipline or judgment of the Lord. Cultivate now an attitude and desire that is quick to confess and desirous of transformation (2 Cor. 7:9-10; 1 Jn. 1:9; Js. 5:16).
In the coming year, you will be sinned against. Be ready to forgive that sin. Do not harbor bitterness and anger and resentment. God is using the sin of others in your life to shape you into the image of Christ. Like Christ, be ready to forgive when confession is offered (Prov. 19:11; Lk. 17:3; Eph. 4:31-32).
In the coming year, you will observe the sins of others. Use the failures of others as an encouragement and guide and example for your own life for how you might conduct yourselves in contrasting godliness. Use those failures as sobering warnings for yourself that you too can fall. And remember that God will not tempt and entice you to sin and will never place you in a circumstance in which His sustaining and preserving grace is not sufficient to see you through that day (1 Cor. 10:1-13).
In the coming year, you will have some opportunities for success. Do not treasure the success more than you treasure Christ. Set your affections on things above, not on things below. Let your conduct reflect that you desire to please God more than you desire the adulation of men. Remember that earthly accumulations rust and heavenly ones do not (Matt. 6:19-21; Col. 3:1-2).
In the coming year, you will have some measure of failure and you will experience some lack. Do not despair. As a believer, you have treasures and blessings that cannot be taken away, that are being preserved and kept by the sovereign God, and that will never rust or decay. Be content with what God has allotted you. If you have food and covering, you have enough. Godliness is of far more value (can you say, “eternal value?”) than earthly gain (1 Pet. 1:3-9; 1 Tim. 6:6-8).
In the coming year, you will have opportunities for ministry and serving others for which you feel wholly inadequate. Good. You and I are inadequate in ourselves for every task given to us by God. And the sooner we recognize our inadequacy, we will flee to God in dependence on Him, and find that He will equip and prepare and sustain us in all that He calls us to do (2 Cor. 2:14-3:6).
In the coming year, you will have opportunities for ministry and serving others for which you feel adequate. Do not be deceived. You adequacy is not in yourself. Whatever you do, you do only by the grace and empowerment of God. Never forget that what is valuable is what is inside you — the treasure of the gospel; what is valuable is not you yourself — every servant is only a common vessel. Before every opportunity of service, examine your own heart for sin and dependence so that you serve in His strength and not your own (2 Cor. 4:7; Gal. 6:1).
In the coming year, you will have some measure of suffering. It may be an illness, or the death of a loved one, or the loss of some position or possession, or an attack on your character, but in some way, you will experience an opportunity to lament and grieve. In every trial, God will sustain you. In every loss, you have an opportunity to fill up and demonstrate the sufferings of Christ to a watching world. In every suffering, you have an opportunity to experience the fellowship of Christ that cannot be known without that suffering (1 Cor. 10:13; Phil. 3:8-11). Whatever is lost on earth pales in comparison to what is gained in heaven. Afflictions really are short and burdens really are light when compared to what is gained in heaven for all eternity (2 Cor. 4:16-18).
In the coming year, you will have questions that seem unanswerable. The Bible may not give answers to every question of life (“Should I marry Sally or Sue?” “Should I move to Tacoma or Tucumcari?”). But it does provide us with truth that will change our hearts and minds and make us to know the Lord. And as we know Him and experience His transforming grace in our lives, we will desire to please Him in all things and that will produce decisions that are wise. Delight yourself in Him and desire Him more than anything else, and you will make decisions that will reflect the wisdom of wanting Him more than anything else — and questions will then be answered (Ps. 27:4, 8; 37:4-5; Rom. 12:1-2).
What does the Lord specifically have in store for you this year? That’s unknowable. But what is knowable is what God is seeking to do in you this year, and how you should respond to His gracious interventions in your life.
Words of Grace 