Another year has opened in our lives but who will see the end of it? That we cannot tell, but we do know that each succeeding year is carrying us on to eternity. Though in the providence of God we should be spared to see a few New Years yet in our life, yet after all “how short a time we shall on earth remain.” It is very evident that we cannot remain in this world always. Generation after generation of the men who lived on the earth have been cut down with the scythe of death and soon it shall be our turn also —
“For over it the wind doth pass
and it away is gone
And of the place where once it was
it shall no more be known.”
“Man goes to his long home and the mourners go about the street.” Seeing then that our time is short, how are we to use the days that lie ahead should we be spared to the end of the year? What plans are we making as to how we are to spend our time? Are our minds wholly taken up with the pleasures we may indulge in during the days that lie ahead, even although these may not be sinful pleasures? Or are we, on the other hand, thinking more about our careers and how we can best advance our interests in this world in our secular employments? So many are wholly taken up with these things and give no thought to their higher interests.
What are these higher interests? Surely they are the things that concern our souls and our everlasting destiny. We are not to be taken up with what we shall eat and what we shall drink and wherewithal shall we be clothed. Scripture warns us against that. It has a different message for us. It says: “But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.” We are directed to a better pursuit than that which
belongs only to this life. We are directed to those things that concern the life to come — our need of seeking the Kingdom — our need of entering into the Kingdom of God and becoming a living subject of that Kingdom. We are to desire the setting up within us of that Kingdom over which Christ reigns as Lord. Are we not in this commanded to seek for ourselves that Christ would take possession of the throne of our heart for Himself, and in so doing dispossess the enemy of our soul of that overlordship which he has exercised over us too long?
“We with our fathers sinned have,
and of iniquity
Too long we have the workers been;
we have done wickedly.”
What a blessed New Year this would be for us if it were a new year in which we were turned from darkness to light, and from the power of sin unto God, that is, if we are still in the Kingdom of darkness. What translation that would be into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son! What light would break on our sin-darkened understanding! What a renewing of our will would take place! What an outgoing of love to Christ and of filial affection to Him, who, by the indwelling of the Spirit in our hearts, we may now address as Abba, Father! What an unspeakable blessing it would be, through the riches of His grace bestowed upon us, to be made heirs of eternal life! How glorious it would be to be no longer a stranger and a foreigner and an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel but made nigh by the blood of Christ and so an heir of God and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ! What better could you desire for your never-dying soul at the beginning of another year! To have Christ come in and sup with you and you with Him is surely something worth seeking and longing for. For the Church of God can say: “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.”
But you who are reading this, may be saying in your heart — “Oh, but I have already found Him. He is to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart.” If it is so, it is well for you that it is so. It is His doing and ought to be marvellous in your eyes. If He had not sought you, you would never have sought Him. If He had not put the constraints of His love upon you, you would never have been drawn to Him — “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.” Just think of that! His love went out to you when you had no thoughts of love to Him; yea, even before you had a being in time. What a deep wonder and mystery there is in this! What unfathomable love! And think
of where He went for you — not just humbling Himself to lay hold of your nature who was God’s eternal Son, but becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. What humiliation there was in that! What condescension on the part of Him, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, to make Himself of no reputation! And when you remember that He did all this for you, you who deserved to die eternally. What can you say but “Oh, amazing love, love beyond compare?” And what else have you to say? “There is none like Christ! there is none like Christ! He is all in all to me — all my hope is in Him and all my delight.”
When He hides His face from you for a season you say — “Oh that I knew where I might find Him.” Your desire is to Him and to the remembrance of His Name. You have a place in your heart that none but He can fill, and which you will give to none else but He. Like the Church at such a time you seek Him and in your seeking you say: “Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?” You hear those who address you as “O thou fairest among women” and you say, “Surely that cannot be me. I am so black.” Oh, but it is you that is meant, for you are “black, but comely, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.” You are black indeed, as you are in yourself. What is there in you but sin and corruption? But Christ has put a little of His comeliness upon you, so you are comely indeed. But He will make you more comely still so that ultimately you will have perfect likeness to Him. “Go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherd’s tents.” Seek Him where you found Him at first at His footstool, seek Him at a Throne of grace, seek Him in the Courts of His House where He has so often made Himself known in the preaching of the Word and in the ordinances of His House. He has promised to satisfy the longing soul so you will soon have to say, “I found Him whom my soul loveth: I held Him, and would not let Him go.”
May the year that has opened be a year of blessing and good for many souls. May those who are yet strangers to the grace of God experience His drawing power and be brought to seek Him. May you who are His own true people, even you who are faint, yet pursuing, find this year to be a year of blessing to you — a year in which the Lord will draw near and say to you, “I am thy salvation”. May it prove a year in which the courts of God’s house will prove in the experience of many — Bethel, the house of God and the gate of heaven!