I trust that as Emmanuel Church family we are praying for one another to know the Lord’s blessing in the coming year – and beyond! Nevertheless, as we enter 2024 with all of its uncertainties there is a great deal that could fill us with concern.
Last Sunday evening in the last few hours of 2023 we gathered as a church and encouraged one another from Psalm 90 to have the right perspective both of where we’ve come from and also what the future holds:
“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90 vs 1,2)
We have an advantage that Moses, who wrote the Psalm, could only long for: that as we trust in the Lord Jesus who fulfilled all of the Old Testament promises, we can be certain that we are forgiven and have living hope because He has risen from the dead.
To say that the LORD is our ‘dwelling place’ – where and in whom we live, is in many ways to understate the perspective with which we enter the year ahead: We learned from the New Testament letter to the Galatians at the start of last year that as Christians we have been adopted into His family as ‘heirs’ of the promises of God who can, astonishingly, call Him “Abba” Father!
Whatever the year ahead holds, God’s Word promises you and me certainty of whose we are! Moreover, that certainty isn’t just for 2024 but 2025, 2026…. and on into eternity!
I don’t know what the future holds but trusting in Jesus I have been adopted by the one who holds the future – and we have confidence that He is good.
Spencer Shaw