Grace for the New Year

By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Grace is not only God’s disposition to do good for us when we don’t deserve it. It is an actual power from God that acts and makes good things happen in us and for us.

God’s grace was God’s acting in Paul to make Paul work hard: “By the grace of God . . . I worked harder than any of them.” So when Paul says, “Work out your own salvation,” he adds, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13). Grace is power from God to do good things in us and for us.

This grace is past and it is future. It is ever-cascading over the infinitesimal waterfall of the present, from the inexhaustible river of grace coming to us from the future, into the ever-increasing reservoir of grace in the past.

In the next five minutes, you will receive sustaining grace flowing to you from the future, and you will accumulate another five minutes’ worth of grace in the reservoir of the past. The proper response to the grace you experienced in the past is thankfulness, and the proper response to grace promised to you in the future is faith. We are thankful for the past grace of the last year, and we are confident in the future grace for the new year.

John Piper 

The Most Dangerous Way to Begin a New Year

“Then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, ‘Why have you given us only one lot and one share to inherit, since we are a great people, inasmuch as the Lord has blessed us until now?’” JOSHUA 17:14

 

PONDER THIS

The people of Israel were living in self-confidence. They were boasting about their greatness. The same thing is true about so many of us. Pride is bad enough, but pride that lifts its head from the mire of failure is terrible. These people were failing to be, do, have, and say what God would have them be, do, have, and say, and they were saying, “Look how great we are.”

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). There’s nothing that will put you more out of the reach of the devil than genuine humility. But if you’re proud, you’re going to find God as an enemy. The Bible says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). And what is grace? Grace is the desire and the ability to do the will of God.

What are some ways you are tempted to live in confidence in yourself instead of in God?

How have you experienced the reality that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble?

PRACTICE THIS

Today is the start of a new year. You are likely taking up new practices and setting new goals. Assess your goals for this year through the lens of dependence on self or dependence on the Lord. Take steps to rely further on the Lord this year.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

Psalm 39:4

    [4] “O LORD, make me know my end

        and what is the measure of my days;

        let me know how fleeting I am!

Psalm 90:3

    [3] You return man to dust

        and say, “Return, O children of man!”

Ecclesiastes 12:7

[7] and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Job 34:14-15

    [14] If he should set his heart to it

        and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, 

    [15] all flesh would perish together,

        and man would return to dust.

Death Rehearsal

You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. . . . So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:5–6, 12)

For me, the end of a year is like the end of my life. And 11:59 pm on December 31 is like the moment of my death.

The 365 days of the year are like a miniature lifetime. And these final hours are like the last days in the hospital after the doctor has told me that the end is very near. And in these last hours, the lifetime of this year passes before my eyes, and I face the inevitable question: Did I live it well? Will Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge, say “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21)?

I feel very fortunate that this is the way my year ends. And I pray that the year’s end might have the same significance for you.

The reason I feel fortunate is that it is a great advantage to have a trial run at my own dying. It is a great benefit to rehearse once a year in preparation for the last scene of your life. It is a great benefit because the morning of January 1 will find most of us still alive, at the brink of a whole new lifetime, able to start fresh all over again.

The great thing about rehearsals is that they show you where your weaknesses are, where your preparation was faulty; and they leave you time to change before the real play in front of a real audience.

I suppose for some of you the thought of dying is so morbid, so gloomy, so fraught with grief and pain that you do your best to keep it out of your minds, especially during holidays. I think that is unwise and that you do yourself a great disservice. I have found that there are few things more revolutionizing for my life than a periodic pondering of my own death.

How do you get a heart of wisdom so as to know how best to live? The psalmist answers:

You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. . . . So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:5–6, 12)

Numbering your days simply means remembering that your life is short and your dying will be soon. Great wisdom — great, life-revolutionizing wisdom — comes from periodically pondering these things.

The criterion of success, that Paul used to measure his life, was whether he had kept the faith. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7–8). Let this be our test at year’s end.

And if we discover that we did not keep the faith this past year, then we can be glad, as I am, that this year-end death is (probably) only a rehearsal, and a whole life of potential faith-keeping lies before us in the next year.

John Piper 

Find True Contentment for the New Year

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

PHILIPPIANS 4:11-13

 

PONDER THIS

Paul wrote this passage from prison. He learned how to be content in everything, even in situations you and I would definitely complain about. He famously said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." And that literally means, I can do all things through Christ who is pouring His life into me. Learn a life of contentment. Have the contentment of His provision. The deepest need of your heart can be met in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am content in the Lord Jesus. That doesn't mean I'm satisfied with myself. That doesn't mean I don't have any ambition. I, along with the Apostle Paul, can say gladly and surely, “I can do all things through Christ who is pouring His life into me,” and “I have learned that in whatsoever state I am, to be content.” If you would face a new year without fear, if you want the source of satisfaction, the source of sufficiency, and the source of security, look to the Lord Jesus Christ.

When is it most difficult for you to be content? How is this possible with God?

How will you seek contentment in Christ? How would that change your goals and ambitions for the year?

PRACTICE THIS

Look at your New Year’s Resolutions and consider what is pointing toward or away from contentment in Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Bible Study

Acts 2:24

[24] God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

John 10:11

[11] I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Hebrews 10:29

[29] How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

Isaiah 54:10

    [10] For the mountains may depart

        and the hills be removed,

    but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,

        and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”

        says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Outfitted and Empowered

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 

(Hebrews 13:20–21)

Christ shed the blood of the eternal covenant. By this successful redemption, he obtained the blessing of his own resurrection from the dead. That is even clearer in Greek than it is in English, and here it’s clear enough: “God . . . brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus . . . by the blood of the eternal covenant.” This Jesus — raised by the blood of the covenant — is now our living Lord and Shepherd.

And because of all that, God does two things: 

1. He equips us with everything good that we may do his will, and 
2. He works in us that which is pleasing in his sight.

The “eternal covenant,” secured by the blood of Christ, is the new covenant. And the new covenant promise is this: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). Therefore, the blood of this covenant not only secures God’s equipping us to do his will, but also secures God working in us to make that equipping successful. 

The will of God is not just written on stone or paper as a means of grace. It is worked in us. And the effect is: We feel and think and act in ways more pleasing to God.

We are still commanded to use the equipment he gives: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” But more importantly we are told why: “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13).

If we are able to please God — if we do his good pleasure — it is because the blood-bought grace of God has moved from mere equipping to omnipotent transforming.

  John Piper