Challenges and Blessings in the New Year

      By Fern Horst

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." (Revelation 22:21)

Here we stand on the brink of another new year. We can be sure that it will hold rich blessings, challenges of various sorts, the testing of our trust in the Lord, and many opportunities to grow closer to Him. The part that is largely unknown to us is the form these things will take.

As I read the very last chapter of the Bible on the very last day of the year, I thought it quite fitting that the last verse in the Bible bestows on us the blessing of Christ's grace with us. What is this grace? According to Thayer's Greek Definitions, it is "the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues." Christ's grace is His divine favor. It is His merciful kindness toward us. And it is His gift of enabling us to do His will.

We can't make it through the coming year intact in our relationship with Christ and faithful to the purposes He has for us, without His grace bestowed upon us. Our flesh may be willing, but it is weak, and it is at this point of weakness that Christ's grace takes over in our lives and brings us, through everything we will experience, to a place of victory.

We can see around us those who have rejected Christ's grace or who have not yet accepted it. It is sad to see these lives disintegrate and crumble as Christ's grace is not present in their lives to carry them through the rough places and to bring them His blessings in the midst of it all. This can be our challenge to extend Christ's grace to them through our words and actions in hopes that they will want it for themselves.

I also find it fitting that the very last chapter of the Old Testament contains instructions for experiencing God's blessings in our lives:

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (Malachi 3:10)

When we give to God what belongs to Him - which is all that we are and all that we possess - He has promised to pour out on us a blessing so big we will not have room enough to receive it! As I face this New Year, I am challenged again to not only surrender myself to Christ, but to be willing and alert to the ways in which He wants me to bring all of my tithes into His storehouse.

I don't know all the ways He will ask me to tithe of myself in the coming year, but I know it will likely involve giving of myself in ways that I would rather not, and at times when I would much rather be doing something else. I know that sometimes my heart will rebel at what He wants me to do. Likely thoughts that His requests on my time and life aren't fair will rear their ugly heads from time to time, as well as temptations to compare my life to others'. Many times I will need to persevere even when His tasks for me become discouraging, or when I'm way too tired to care.

It is at these times that I will desperately need the grace of Christ to enable me to be faithful. It is so comforting to know that God has promised it to me, and to you, and that because of His grace we will not only make it through this coming year, but we will experience God's blessings poured out on our lives in ways we don't yet know! Let's be challenged this new year to be constantly aware of God's grace, and to recognize the many blessings He pours out on us as we give faithfully of our "tithes" to Him.

© 2006 Fern Horst

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