Hope for the New Year
Entering a new year often causes me to reflect on what has been and wonder what will be.
733 O God, Our Help in Ages Past
O God, our help in ages past
Our hope for years to come
Our shelter from the stormy blast
And our eternal home
(I’ve been on this planet long enough to have the advantage of retrospect. As with all of us, my life is full of hills and valleys. I am well aware of God’s presence through it all. Just to stop and think about it for just a moment fills my heart with gratitude for His sustaining presence and provision throughout every season in my life. That reality is also my hope (certainty really) for the future. He’s been there ‘through it all’ every day of my life. Why would I question His presence in the future?!)
Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure
Sufficient is Thine arm alone
And our defense is sure
(This is why I’m a big proponent of teaching your kids the Bible’s stories…Time after time we see God’s faithfulness to His people. By instilling the lessons found in these stories, we instill a confidence in our mind that God is faithful – past, present, and future.)
Before the hills in order stood
Or earth received her frame
From everlasting Thou art God
To endless years the same
(Before time…God was. At the present…God is. For eternity…God will be. Who better to put My trust in?)
A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone,
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.
(My life is just a tiny blip in the whole scheme of things and yet the God of creation, the God of eternity cares about me! Loves me! My times are in His hands…where better could they be?!)
Time, like an ever-rolling stream
Soon bears us all away
We fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at the op’ning day
(While my time on this earth is limited, my time in heaven is not! Not gonna lie..I’m kind of looking forward to it!)
O God, our help in ages past
Our hope for years to come
Be Thou our guard while troubles last
And our eternal home
(John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. Yep, life’s not always going to easy, we’re pretty much guaranteed that. But the bigger guarantee is that God will always be there…guiding, sustaining, providing, comforting, forgiving, renewing. Past, present, and future! A promise to rely on in the new year and always!)
Dawn Lubker, Ministry Assistant
