Happy New Year
Happy New Year! By the way, who was it that decided time would be marked by years? Hmmm – have you ever thought about that and that when we celebrate a new year, we’re celebrating what our Almighty Creator established? Yes, Genesis 1:14 states that at the creation of the world, God said,
Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.
“Year” and “years” are mentioned over 800 times in the Bible. The Bible records the number or years people lived, the years people were in captivity, the number of years rulers reigned, and on and on. In God’s eyes, the first day of a new year is not simply another day. It has past, present, and future value. Consider a sampling of how God keeps note of years:
Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
Genesis 18:14 Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
Leviticus 27:24 ‘In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it,
Numbers 10:11 Now in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth of the month, the cloud was lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony
2 Kings 25:27 Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah
1 Samuel 27:7 The number of days that David lived in the country of thePhilistines was a year and four months.
Isaiah 6:1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, …with the train of His robe filling the temple.
Years have significance to our Heavenly Father. He ordains events for certain years. He marks them. He takes note of them and uses people who are sensitive to His call. Rather than letting today come and go with perhaps some passing thoughts about resolutions, let’s pray to our Heavenly Father with anticipation about what He has in store for this year and how we can be a part of what He is accomplishing.
Heavenly Father, how exciting that You, Creator God, set years, months, and days in which to accomplish Your will. Use us! Let us be a part of the unfolding of Your eternal plan.
