New Year Devo

Here is one of my favorite devotionals for a new year, enjoy.

Isaiah 52:12 “You shall not go out with haste,… for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.”

Security from Yesterday
God requires an account of what is past (Ecc 3:15)
At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future. Yet sometimes we are a little nervous when we remember our yesterdays. We ask “How will this year be different?”. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders, but God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present. Don’t you sometimes wish you could forget the past? If you are not careful you will fall into the same things God delivered you from

Security for Tomorrow “…the Lord will go before you…”
This is a gracious revelation – that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures. As would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard”. God’s hand reaches back to the past. Settling all the claims against our conscience. We no longer have to carry the guilt, heartache, bitterness… because He settles it

Security for Today You shall not go out with haste…
As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. Let us go out with the patient power of knowing that God will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. Learn & grow from it

It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ

My point: Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands. Step out into the invincible future with Him

What are 3 things you will do different or change in '08?

Happy new year, MAKE it a good one.