My Life in His Hands

There is fundamentally no difference between the first day of the year and any other day of the year! The sun will rise and the sun will set and the world’s history will move forward by another twenty four hours. But the fact that we call the first of January New Year’s day forcibly reminds us of the passing of time and provides us with a means of recording and remembering history.

The weather in the UK has been especially cold these past few weeks and those of us old enough to remember such things have been talking about what it was like in 1947 or 1963 – years when the snow and ice stayed on the ground for exceptionally long periods of time. I will never forget walking up the frozen river in Oxford and skating on the ice! We put the memories of our own lives in place by remembering the date and we measure the events of history by what happened in, say, 1066, 1776 or, closer to home, 1914-18 and 1939-45.

So as we move from one year to another, and wave goodbye to 2010 as we welcome 2011, is anything going to change for you personally in the year ahead? Undoubtedly for every single one of us things are going to happen that will surprise us, maybe, even, shock us, possibly disappoint us as well as excite us. There may be traumas we have to face, unscheduled events that take place or blessings that we could never have dreamt of coming into our lives. None of us know what the year ahead will have in store – and those who think they can foretell the future with every form of astrology or divination are simply telling the world how deceived they are!

There is only One who knows the end from the beginning. There is only One who can be trusted to help us through whatever events and circumstances that we may be looking back on in twelve months time. There is only One who has your very best interest at heart and whose love for you is beyond measure or comprehension.

So, at the beginning of this New Year, my own resolution is one that everyone of us can share in, if we really want to - to trust Him with today, every day of the next three hundred and sixty five days. It is a fact that as we trust Him in the present, He determines our future. I don’t want anyone else to try and forecast what 2011 holds in store for me – I only want to trust the one who truly holds the future in His hands. I don’t need to know what will happen ‘tomorrow’ – for as long as I am trusting Him for ‘today’, I know my tomorrows are safe in His hands. So let’s rejoice in both this first day of the New Year, but let us not forget to rejoice in every day He makes and gives us to enjoy. Each one is a precious gift from our loving Creator.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for this new day and this New Year. Help me to live each and every day of the year, knowing that You have made it and that, whatever happens, my times are utterly safe when they are committed into Your hands. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.