7 Truths to Start Your Year with Thankfulness
If you are a Christian, then according to Ephesians 1, you are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. You have been given everything you need for life and godliness. Moreover, Christians are invited by both the Old and New Testaments to give thanks to God for His goodness. So what could be a better use of your time than to start your year with thankfulness? In this post, I want to share 7 truths (in no particular order) that Christians can thank the Lord for as they start into 2022.
1. You have peace with God
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1 ESV
If this was the only promise on the list, it should cause you to be grateful to the Lord for your entire life. The world is at odds against God: it denies God’s existence, breaks His law, and worships anything but the living God. The majority of the world is starting this year against the Lord and thus does not have peace with God. But for the person who has repented and believed in Jesus, the war against God has ended. There is peace. Not because of anything you have done or could do. But because of the gospel.
This promise is sweet enough to give you joy every single day this year. Peace with God. Your sins forgiven. Start your year overwhelmed by the goodness of this good news.
No matter how chaotic your life or the world gets, you have peace with the only person that matters in the end: your Creator.
Let this “peace that passes all understanding” guard your heart and mind this year.
2. You don’t have to fear death
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:56-57 ESV
Death is an ever present reminder of sin and God’s judgement against it. God promised Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that on the day they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die. The Bible says it is appointed for man once to die and then comes judgement. Death is a certainty that humbles us and testifies that there is something fundamentally wrong with the world. And it is this powerful enemy that Christ destroyed through His resurrection.
The world fears death, and rightfully so: it is too powerful for any person to avoid. But if you are united to Christ by faith, then you have victory over death. You don’t have to fear death anymore than you would fear a wasp without a stinger. Jesus has defeated death at it’s root: your sin. Your sins have made you deserving of death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Oh that we would thank God daily for this gift in 2022!
3. God is Lord over the nations and over history
Psalm 2 is one of my all time favorite passages. It was the text I chose for the first sermon I ever preached. It paints a compelling picture of the nations setting themselves against God and His anointed, but failing. God cannot be defeated by sinful humans and His plans are not thwarted by mankind’s rebellion. There is no individual, organization, or government that is strong enough to face Him. In fact, the only reasonable response to God’s sovereign majesty is to submit to His king: Jesus.
God’s rule over His universe is a truth you and I should remember in 2022. Oftentimes, it seems like current events are dictated by politicians or other powers in our society.
Let us never forget that there is only One who rules over history: the unchanging, all-powerful, eternal God.
You may not know what the year will hold, but you can start your year with thankfulness knowing that the one who does control what the year will hold is the same loving God who mercifully saved you through Jesus.
4. The Church will prevail over the gates of hell
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:18 ESV
It has become commonplace to discuss the “state of the Church.” More often than not, there are a dozen ways people can find in which the Church is not living up to her high calling. Such analysis is necessary, but always remember that no matter how weak the visible Church may seem to you now, Jesus has promised that the Church will have victory in the end. In fact, He goes as far as to say the very gates of hell will not withstand the Church’s attack.
In other words, start 2022 with a positive outlook on Church, particularly your local Church. Don’t start the year by thinking about all the ways it falls short of the biblical ideal. Don’t start complaining or critiquing the things you think need to change. Start your year by reminding yourself that Jesus has already promised the Church victory. The world, the flesh, and the devil won’t win in the end. Then, go serve in your local Church this year with the full knowledge that your efforts are not in vain.
5. Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 ESV
Loss is inevitable in a fallen world. Everything in life is fleeting and transient. Your life in 2022 will be different from your life in 2021. People change, circumstances change, opportunities come and go. But one thing will never change or alter: the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you are a Christian, you have something eternally indestructible. You have something that life’s changing circumstances can’t touch.
The love of Jesus is something you can always enjoy, always rely on, always count on.
The question is how much does Christ’s love for your affect your life? I once read a secular quote which said “…a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” Well, for the Christian, you have all three of these things in Christ: a Savior to love and be loved by eternally, a commission given by Jesus to devote your life to, and the hope of fully experiencing Jesus’ love for you after death. Pray that the indestructible love of Christ would compel you to greater faithfulness this year.
6. Christ will return and set all things right
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
Revelation 22:12-14 ESV
I don’t think Christians can meditate too much on the return of Christ. This world is cursed, full of sin and evil, and characterized primarily by rejection of God and His gospel. Jesus is resisted as He was during the time of His earthly ministry and those who side with Him are persecuted, slandered, and rejected. This has been true in every age of the world and will be true in 2022 as well.
But you and I can start the year with thankfulness because Jesus has promised to return and set things right. He is coming soon and will usher in the New Heavens and New Earth where righteousness will dwell. Such a promise should remind us to stay alert and watchful in the present. Now is the time Jesus has given us before He returns to do the works God has called us to and to preach the gospel to all nations.
7. The Holy Spirit is presently active in raising spiritually dead souls to life
He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit
Titus 3:5 ESV
You can probably think of loved ones, coworkers, or people you know who are starting 2022 spiritually dead. They have not submitted to Christ, they have not interest in spiritual things, and are living in open, unrepentant sin. Remind yourself this new year that as spiritually dead as people are around you, the Holy Spirit can still open their eyes to see the glory of Christ in the gospel. With man it is impossible, but nothing is impossible with God.
The reality that the Holy Spirit regenerates people should give you boldness in your evangelism and every day conversation this year. You have no power to raise people from the dead spiritually. In fact, you couldn’t open your own blind eyes. It is God who must act if any human is to be saved. And He is acting.
2022 will be full of many events. But the most glorious events that will happen this year is God saving people from eternal death through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There will be more saints in heaven praising the Lord for His mercy and grace because of God’s work this year.
So, start your year with thankfulness to God for all these precious promises. Read His word so you can uncover other promises to thank Him for and live in light of in 2022. Your love for Christ and your conformity to Him will grow in proportion to the promises in Scripture that you know and believe.
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