December 17, 2024
A New Devotional to Start Your Year
3m read
As we begin the new year, I’d like to share with you this sobering statement from Ellen White:
A new year has commenced. What has been the record of the past year in your Christian life? How stands your record in heaven? I entreat you to make an unreserved surrender to God. Have your hearts been divided? Give them wholly to the Lord now. Make a different life history the coming year from that of the past. Humble your souls before God. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.” Put away all pretense and affectation. Act your simple, natural self. Be truthful in every thought and word and deed, and “in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Ever remember that the moral nature needs to be braced with constant watchfulness and prayer. As long as you look to Christ, you are safe; but the moment you think of your sacrifices and difficulties, and begin to sympathize with and pet yourself, you lose your trust in God and are in great peril. - 4T 521.4
What a solemn admonishment for us to reflect upon the past year to see if our lives have progressed in the path of sanctification and to commit to draw nearer to our Lord in the new one. Taking an honest assessment of our spiritual condition is a worthwhile endeavor, and I praise God that with His help, we can “make a different life history the coming year.” Imagine that—we can change history!
How do we do this? By making an unreserved surrender to God and giving Him our whole heart; by putting away all pretense and artificiality; by acting our simple, natural self; by being truthful in every thought, word, and deed; by bracing ourselves with constant watchfulness and prayer; and above all, by clinging to the promise that “as long as you look to Christ, you are safe.”
Over the past two weeks, over 1500 people have been taking the initiative to focus their gaze on Christ at the start of 2023 by participating in the #Steps2ChristChallenge. Each day, we’ve been listening to and reflecting on a chapter of Steps to Christ as we seek to change our life history in the new year with Jesus.
It has been a refreshing experience for us who started the challenge on January 1, but the great news is that it’s not too late to join in if you’d like to receive this blessing too!
This challenge will remain open to anyone who would like a guided, daily email through the audiobook of Steps to Christ. It takes just 13 days to go through the whole book! So whether you want to join in yourself or want to tell your friends about it, just follow this link to sign up to begin receiving the daily emails right away. There’s never a bad time to start!
Another wonderful way to start the new year with Jesus is to catch up on the powerful messages and seminars from GYC.
All of the main sessions, morning, and evening devotions are available now on AudioVerse in both audio and video forms, and we are processing the breakout sessions as quickly as we can. New episodes are being released daily!
As we closed 2022, many of our listeners responded generously to support the Meat in Due Season project, and we are so grateful for their tremendous financial partnership.
However, we did not quite make it to our goal.
We are lacking just $50,000 to meet the project budget, so your help is still needed in the new year to help us across the finish line!
If the Lord moves upon you to help us hit this goal, you may give at our donate page by credit/debit card or ACH transfer, and if you are concerned about the credit card transaction fees, you may give via our PayPal Giving Fund page. Or you may send a check to AudioVerse at our address below.
Thank you so much for your sacrificial support to enable this ministry to continue changing the life histories of souls around the world.
In Christ,
Alistair Huong
Executive Director
AudioVerse | PO Box 2288 | Collegedale | TN | 37315