There's been approximately 139,000,000 births, and 58,000,000 deaths. Despite all the suicides, murders, and natural disasters, the world population grew by approximately 82,000,000.
So here we are, just hours away from a metaphorically clean slate. Looking back, people are seeing the depths of despond that they thought they would never get through, but here they are. Some are now gone that, if they had been helped, would have been doing that very same thing.
It has been a mere 365 days, and look at all that has been accomplished. Look at all that has been destroyed. Look at how much more you know now. Evaluate the success of your 2013 New Year's Resolutions.
Milestones have been reached. I will reach mine in seven hours. My sixteenth birthday.
But what is a milestone? Isn't it simply the imaginary summit we make for ourselves? Or rather, it is the imaginary checkpoints we place along the path of life, and we assume that only after achieving them all will we finish the race well. We don't take into account that the accomplishing of some of those milestones may lead us off the path God intended.
New Year's Day is an annual internationally recognized milestone... but it's only a day. We celebrate the changing of a single digit. We are going from a 3 to a 4. A milestone? Who knows what 2014 will have in store for us? Who knows if we will even live through it? Who knows whether the world will last until this time next year? Who knows how many more births, deaths, bombings, inventions, wins, and losses will occur during the next 365 days? Just God.
Those of us who remain have been granted another 'milestone.' We are calling it 2014. The history of the Bible has now been pushed back yet another year, and the belief in that history will be pushed further back as well, if it is not defended.
Many people saw their previous New Year's Resolutions fail. That's where depression reaches a peak. People think "Well, it's too late to try now- I'll wait until next year." Forgetting that the imaginary milestone they label as "Next Year" might not be on God's timeline.
Starting at midnight, the clock begins ticking. For this next trip around the sun, we will all be given 525,949 minutes at our disposal. Of course- God isn't subject to the physics of this solar system that He created.
There are lives that are expected to see 2015, who won't even live til midnight tonight. There are lives that are dangerously close to being self-extinguished, that are needing the Power of God to bring them out of the darkness, so that they can live to see their entire life of God's intended length for them.
There are souls being lost, but there are so many more waiting to be saved!
This is the purpose for which I am, Lord-willing, entering into 2014. This is my resolution.
God, I'm giving this year to You.
Proverbs 16:3 ~
Commit to the LORD whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed.
Proverbs 19:21 ~
Many are the plans in a man's heart,
but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.
