Erin Kurnia It’s the New Year once again. When we ponder upon the past year, what do we find? Fun memories, past events and milestones. But is that all we should do? What should we do for the next coming year? Every new year given to us is only by God’s grace, so it’s vital we don’t take it for granted!
At the start of each year, we usually create goals and wishes that we aspire to accomplish and tick off that list by the time the year ends. But when we evaluate what we want for the coming year, how much of it points towards materialistic things, temporary pleasures like money, acceptance… etc? These goals can even be unrealistic at times and our success in achieving them isn’t guaranteed either– while we might have motivation at the start of the year, it all seems lost by the end. Doesn’t living this way feel repetitive, mundane and tiring? Whether we succeed in ticking off the list of goals or not, is this all there is to every single year?
One thing we can never forget is that day by day, year by year, all that we have is God’s grace given to us once again. Our lives depend that much on God and His grace to us. Something we often forget about is that God can take that grace away from us anytime. If God has led us through the year, we must not forget that it is only by His grace alone. So how does this realisation change what we must do for the coming year, compared to the past years when our focus was on mere, temporary pleasures?
“A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months, or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week. We must draw upon God’s boundless store of grace from day to day as we need it.” – D. L. Moody
This quote from an evangelist, D.L. Moody reminds us that we depend on God’s grace day by day and every single day God provides for us. How wonderful it is to have a God whose grace is indeed sufficient for both our smallest and largest needs every day!
The Knowing of God
Each new year, we must strive to know God even more than the year before. This is something that not a lot of people think about, even though it’s one of the most crucial things in our lives. A lot of people miss the importance of growing in the knowing of God, and even I have only thought deeply about this since recently.
In Rev. Agus’ sermons, I have learnt that the centre of everything we do should be the knowing of God, though it is impossible to do alone. The knowing of God is crucial because without growth in the knowing of God, there is no spiritual growth in our lives – our lives will be dry, with no zeal or passion for God. To truly know God isn’t something that’s easy; we have to persevere to learn it. In fact, it takes way longer than a lifetime even to get a glimpse of the mysteries of God’s character! Once again, I was reminded that the more we know God, the more we realise we don’t know God. God’s mysteries are too great for us humans to comprehend and in the end, no one will ever fully understand everything about God in this lifetime.
As mentioned before, growing in the knowledge of God is definitely not something we can do alone. In fact, the task itself seems impossible! That’s exactly why need the help of the Holy Spirit to shape our hearts in humility so that we may grow to know God more and more. We must be willing to be humbled and earnestly ask God in prayer to “remove the heart of stone from our flesh, and give us a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26-27) which involves softening our stone-hardened hearts by replacing it with a heart of flesh. If we truly do know God, it is only by His grace. In turn, it is when we know God that we find the desire to serve God more and more.
J.I Packer says, “There’s a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. When you truly know God, you have energy to serve Him, boldness to share Him, and contentment in Him.”
The more we realize the importance of knowing God, the more we realize how much time we have wasted in the past years. At the same time, we realise that from here, we can learn to know God even more.
If God has given us another year to live, another opportunity to know God more, shouldn’t we seize this opportunity and not take it for granted? How long are we going to continue living our repetitive years seeking worldly things that won’t even matter in the end? To know God should be our ultimate goal and what we earnestly seek for each year.
Our Future?
The truth is, we definitely don’t know anything about our future: everything we will undergo, and whether it will be good or bad. Despite this, those who know and trust Him can rest assured, knowing that God will be with us through each step we take, all the while strengthening our relationship with Him as we become closer and closer.
This coming year, are you willing to learn to know God even more year with me, though it may be hard?
Erin Kurnia (14) is one of the writers for RE Generation-Z. She hopes that by God’s grace, she can write to spread the Truth and happiness to others, that they too may be children of God living in the light. You will find that she really enjoys playing piano, baking, sewing and designing.