Instruction For The Beginning Of A Year

Daily Bread

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By God’s grace, we welcome a new year. Be of a mind not turn over a “new leaf” but to continue in your walk with Christ this new year. He is to be our focus every day.

Note this Scripture from the book of Deuteronomy,

“a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.” (Deuteronomy 11:12 – NKJV)

I read this portion of Scripture and thought how appropriate it is for our new year day. Someone has written that there are only two phrases in the Bible that mention “the beginning of the year,” here in our text and in Ezekiel 40:1.

This particular verse has to do with Moses’ words to Israel as they prepare to enter the promised land. But there are, I believe, principles here that transcends time and should be noted by every person, and for that matter, by every nation.

Moses has said to the people of Israel in the beginning of our context from which our verse is taken,

“Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. (Deuteronomy 11:1 – NKJV)

God makes known to the Israelites through His servant Moses what they should do as they enter into “a land which” He “cares” for. God warns the people that His “eyes . . . are always” active, and that this is “from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.” God is “always” aware of the “land” and the people who inhabit the “land,” and He is always aware of their actions, their practices, whether they are obeying “His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments.” I believe this is counsel for every nation, principles that every country needs to heed, that every person that goes to make up a nation needs to obey.

As we enter into what we call the New Year, it is therefore “the beginning of the year” to us. We who have our lot in this land we call America would be wise to take note of God’s Word and the principles it puts forth . . . to all nations, to all people.

Our nation has turned from God and turned away from His counsel, but we who know Christ as Lord and Savior, who have as our authority for life the Word of God, should in “the beginning of the year,” in a ungodly “land,” not be caught off guard to what our calling is in the midst of a nation that has spurned Him. We should be found to “love the Lord (our) God” and to be disciples of Christ that “keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments . . . from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year;” in other words, “always.” For “the eyes of the Lord are always” active “on” the “land” and “on” the people who inhabit the “land.”

Have a good day . . . and as you walk in this New Year do so with the intent to be found faithful to God and His Word.

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