An anxious patient, lying on her sickbed, turned to her doctor and asked: “Doctor, how long do I have to lie here and suffer?” “Just a day at a time,” replied the doctor.
Just a day at a time the New Year will come to us with its new burdens, duties, hopes, challenges, and fears. As we stand upon the threshold of a brand new year, which, if it continues the pace of the year now past, will record great changes in the history of our country, in the history of our church family, and as families and individuals. Let us not be discouraged or dismayed by the seemingly overwhelming challenges we face. Let us rather find comfort and encouragement in the fact that God has cut the coming year into smaller pieces, and we shall have to live it “just a day at a time.”
We cannot live tomorrow today. Nor can we live next week tomorrow. But, with the help of God, we can bear the burdens and the challenges that come to us today!
As our days go, so shall our strength be. We have God’s own assurance that each day throughout the coming year will find us equipped with that amount of strength necessary to bear its burden, to endure its trial, and fight its battle through. We have this assurance because we have a Savior who has promised to be with us in His love and omnipotence “even unto the end of the world.”
A prayer from a Christian poet to begin this New Year:
Lord, for tomorrow and its needs I do not pray,
Keep me, my God, from stain of sin just for today.
Where’er I fail, forgive me for Jesus sake, I pray;
Let me be kind in word and deed just for today.
Let me be faithful to thy grace just for today.
A Blessed New Year to you!
The Board of Elders
