Thoughts on the New Year
Bob Jones, Jr.
The attitude of most people in welcoming a new year is somewhat surprising. A 
year of life has slipped away J yet they seem to be happy about it. By their ringing of bells, their blowing of whistles, and their singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” they seem to say, “This year will be better than last year. [201] was filled with mistakes and sorrows and disappointments. In [2015] there will be none of these things.”
Perhaps the enthusiastic welcome of people for a new year is an effort to cover the sadness of their hearts, and to bolster their courage to face an unknown future. Christians do not need this sort of demonstration. Christians face the future with a sense of serenity and security. We serve the Lord Who is the “Ancient of Days,” but Who also is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He knows “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10). He assures us that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). He promises that as [are] our days, so shall our strength be (Deuteronomy 33:25). And He invites, “Commit thy way unto the lord; trust also in him; and he will bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5).
The year [2015] may bring joy or sorrow, abundance or poverty, sickness or health. Whatever it brings, we have the blessed assurance that ‘“all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Christians can forget the mistakes and sins of the old year. If we have confessed these sins to Him, we are assured that He has been “faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). And with the Apostle Paul, we can say, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).
First published in Faith for the Family, January / February 1974. Republished here by permission. [Note: we have taken the liberty of updating the dates appearing in the original. The words here were penned in 1973, but ring true for us in 2015 as well.]