In a year that seemed to stretch on endlessly, we finally reach the closing page of 2020. Throughout this unprecedented year, I often found myself yearning for this moment, wishing it had arrived sooner. I kept repeating to myself, “I can’t wait until the New Year,” or “We just have to make it to the New Year.” Now that the New Year is here, I feel bittersweet at its ending.

While 2020 presented more challenges than any other year I have experienced, there were also some beautiful moments that I will cherish forever. As I delved into the teachings of The Attributes of God, I fell deeply in love with the Lord of Heaven and Earth. I spent more time in quiet moments with Jesus, receiving His Spirit’s teachings than at any other point in my life. These moments have transformed me into a new creation, and my passion for God’s Word has been ignited into a powerful flame.

In 2020, I developed a deeper love for my husband and son as we spent countless hours together. Words like “quarantine” and “shelter-in-place” were foreign concepts to us last year at this time. Today, they have become integral parts of our everyday language. While we may not have indulged in extravagant vacations, we found joy in simple pleasures like having water fights while washing our cars on weekends. Instead of exploring other vineyards, we cherished the opportunity to tend to our own vineyard, as mentioned in Song of Songs 1:6.

2020 opened our eyes and gave us a “clear vision.” It’s amusing that as 2019 drew to a close, almost every preacher I heard was “prophesying” a “clear vision” and a “year of the double portion.” However, I don’t believe 2020 fulfilled their expectations. Nevertheless, the year provided my husband and me with a clearer perspective. We started to perceive our world as it truly is, without the rose-colored glasses we’re conditioned to wear. We recognized that the kingdoms of this world continue to crumble, yet we could pledge allegiance to a KINGDOM that has no end. 2020 gifted us this insight, and I will be grateful for it.

While there’s hope for a better year ahead, I can’t help but mourn the end of 2020. I never imagined I’d feel this way. Here I am, at the dawn of a New Year, thanking God not for the year’s end but for the beauty and lessons it brought.

As I prayed this morning for the New Year, I reflected on the attributes of God we’ve inscribed for this year. We may not know what 2021 will bring, but we know a God who remains unchanging. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. Our future lies in His hands, and He works all things together for good because He is good! (Hebrews 13:8, Romans 8:28)

We serve a Sovereign God who declares the end from the beginning and foresees what hasn’t yet happened. He proclaims, “My plan will take place, and I will do all my will” (Isaiah 46:10). We pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of our Lord, a realm brimming with love, peace, grace, patience, and mercy. We worship an omniscient God who knows the future and will guide us through it with His mighty power!

I am deeply grateful for 2020, and my prayer is that we gain a clearer understanding of the Lord in 2021. Let us relinquish control and allow Him to conduct our lives, our symphony of praise, leading us into a state of union and harmony with Him.

To conclude this year, I’d like to share Charles Spurgeon’s New Year’s Resolutions from 1891. On December 31st, he stood before his congregation and shared his vision for the coming year. As the clock struck midnight, welcoming the New Year, Spurgeon delivered a brief address, offering his congregation a word of encouragement. Tragically, he would pass away just thirty-one days later, at the age of fifty-seven.

His words, delivered in 1891, continue to resonate with us as we embark on 2021. As Spurgeon welcomed the year of 1891, let us also welcome 2021 with the same spirit of hope and determination. May we find the strength and guidance to navigate the challenges that lie ahead.

1. God’s Sovereignty

“I see a highway cast up by the foreknowledge and predestination of God. Nothing of the future is left to chance; nay, not the falling of a sparrow, nor the losing of a hair is left to haphazard; but all the events of life are arranged and appointed. Not only is every turn in the road marked in the divine map, but every stone on the road, and every drop of morning dew or evening mist that falls upon the grass which grows at the roadside. We are not to cross a trackless desert; the Lord has ordained our path in his infallible wisdom and infinite love.”

2. God’s Guidance

“I see, next, a Guide provided, as our companion along the way. To him we gladly say, ‘Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel.’ He is waiting to go with us through every portion of the road. ‘The Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee.’ We are not left to pass through life as though it were a lone wilderness, a place of dragons and owls; for Jesus says, ‘I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.’”

3. God’s Strength

“Beside the way and the Guide, I perceive very clearly, by the eye of faith, strength for the journey provided. Throughout the whole distance of the year, we shall find halting-places, where we may rest and take refreshment, and then go on our way singing, “He restoreth my soul.” We shall have strength enough, but none to spare; and that strength will come when it is needed, and not before…God all-sufficient will not fail those who trust him. When we come to the place for shouldering the burden, we shall reach the place for receiving the strength. If it pleases the Lord to multiply our troubles from one to ten, he will increase our strength in the same proportion….Our lamps shall be trimmed as long as they shall need to burn. Let not our present weakness tempt us to limit the Holy One of Israel. There is a hospice on every pass over the Alps of life, and a bridge across every river of trial which crosses our way to the Celestial City. Holy angels are as numerous to guard us as fallen ones to tempt us. We shall never have a need for which our gracious Father has furnished no supply.”

4. God Glorified

“One thing more, and this is brightness itself: this year we trust we shall see God glorified by us and in us. If we realize our chief end, we reach our highest enjoyment. It is the delight of the renewed heart to think that God can get glory out of such poor creatures as we are….We hope that God has been in some measure glorified in some of us during the past year, but we trust he will be glorified by us far more in the year which now begins….We wish our whole life to be a sacrifice; an altar of incense continually smoking with sweet perfume unto the Most High. Oh, to be borne through the year on the wings of praise to God.”

My Friend, we have no idea what this New Year will hold, but I pray that we hold onto God’s Sovereignty, God’s Guidance, and God’s Strength. I pray that in us, the world will see God Glorified to a place of honor and that our Symphony of Praise sings His Song.

I am blessed to walk into this New Year with you,
Erika 💛

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