A PLACE TO ENCOUNTER

A new year makes all good things seem possible! There is something about the clock striking midnight on the last day of the year that ushers in a new beginning, and with that the hope for better days ahead. And this is why we make resolutions and set goals when a new year dawns. We do them in the hope that they will guide us towards a greater and happier year. 

A new year makes all good things seem possible! There is something about the clock striking midnight on the last day of the year that ushers in a new beginning, and with that the hope for better days ahead. And this is why we make resolutions and set goals when a new year dawns. We do them in the hope that they will guide us towards a greater and happier year. 

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! So cried the writer of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.  He was beyond frustrated by the meaningless of life. There seemed to be no lasting satisfaction.

God knows that it is difficult for us as fallen humanity to choose self-control when we are constantly given the opportunities, and even the encouragement to choose self-gratification and indulgence. God has made his grace, his supernatural enabling available to us to resist that which would lead us down the path of regret, pain, and failure in life.

One of the first things that we are taught as children is to say ‘thank you.’ But as we grow into adulthood, this practice often becomes a formality. It is a social norm to say thank you. We say it without much thought or even without feeling thankful. In the Bible, however, thanksgiving is not just a polite gesture but a command of God.