And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom.  To Him be glory forever and ever.  Amen!

II Timothy 4:18

We stand in the threshold of a new year.  All that we could have done or not done in the past year is behind us.  We have before us three hundred and sixty-five days of opportunity.  As we arrive at this dawn of the year, we want to have confidence and certainty.  We do not want to face the year with fear, anxiety or any sense of foreboding about what may come our way.  How can we approach this incoming year with assurance that all will be well?   The Apostle Paul was coming to the end of his earthly journey.  The words of our text are very likely some of the last he ever wrote.  He was in prison and would shortly endure beheadimg for preaching Christ.  In human terms, his future was less promising than any of ours.  With what could Paul encourage himself for his immediate and long-term future?  Our text summarizes it for us, ‘and the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom.  To Him be glory forever and ever.  Amen!’  Paul’s confidence lay in Christ and His faithfulness.  That he is referring to Christ in our text becomes apparent if we consider the words with which he began the chapter, ‘I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.’  Paul was looking to Christ to intervene in all his affairs.  His expectation of deliverance and preservation lay in the Christ Whom he had encountered on the road to Damascus.  Paul’s Christ is our Christ.  We look to Him with confidence in the incoming year.  Regardless of what the future holds, we look to Christ knowing that He will deliver us from every evil work and preserve us unto His heavenly kingdom.

Our Gracious Master and Our God,
we rejoice that our times are in Your hands.
We praise You, that at the beginning of this year,
we can look to You knowing that You never fail.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning