Ending and Beginning

The dawning of a new year can be an exciting time, but it can also be a time when we feel the pressure of beginning well. We get caught up in making goals or plans, finding just the right planner or journal or time management app, but seeking God at the close of one year and the start of a new one doesn’t necessarily require gadgets or elaborate planning.

This fall, I worked through a portion of the book of Psalms, taking time to go slowly and journal as I went. When I got to Psalm 118, I noticed something about the way the psalmist began and ended:

“O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: because His mercy endureth for ever.” v.1

“O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever.” v.29

These almost identical verses reminded me of bookends, characterizing the season of trouble and deliverance on which the psalmist is looking back as well as his outlook on the days to come.

As we close out one year and look ahead to the next, are you ending in thankfulness, and thanking God in advance for the ways His goodness and mercy will be seen in the next?

Another psalm I was challenged by is Psalm 139

“O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.” (vv.1-3)

This is just the beginning of the psalmist’s description of how much God knows about him. But notice how he ends the psalm:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (vv23-24)

Are you ending the year looking back on the ways in which God has shown Himself near to you? Are you beginning the next with a heart ready to be searched, known, and led by Him?

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the pressure to choose just the right goals, just the right Bible reading plan, just the right resolutions and plans, but seeking God in the new year doesn’t have to be complicated. Start your year looking back on God’s faithfulness, goodness, and mercy, and look forward in confident expectation that God’s faithfulness, goodness, and mercy will be there for you in the next. Invite God to search your heart, yield yourself to the Holy Spirit’s conviction and leading, and then follow Him rejoicing throughout the year!

 “Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me.” 

Psalm 63:7-9