End: December 30, 2011

TODAYS WORD FOR FRIDAY DECEMBER 30, 2011

END

DEFINITION:

Finish; the terminal moment in time; the concluding part.

SCRIPTURE:

Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Revelation 22:13

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Our TODAYS WORD that we are using today is unique only because it explains best that we are at the END of another year. Tomorrow is New Years Eve and the next day begins a New Year. We want to take a moment today and consider what we have accomplished for our Lord in 2011. In the verse above from Matthew, Jesus commands us to teach to observe all things that He has commanded us to do right up to the end. The “end” of the year is a time we can look back and think about how we have responded to what God has commanded us to do.

Have we taught our children the ways of the Lord? Have we ourselves lived every day using the TEN COMMANDMENTS as our standards? Do the people that we live by and work with know of our love and dedication for our Lord?

But we cannot live in the past. We can look at the past and evaluate the pluses and the minuses and our failures and our successes. Now we have the opportunity to build our New Year on the base we have established. And this is our challenge for 2012. May this New Year be a year when we spend more time reading God’s Word, more time praying and more time doing what God wants us to do. Take a good look at the talent, the treasure and the time that God gives you and make that time count in using those abilities for your Father in heaven.

Most of us have already started making some plans for the New Year. It is important that we commit our plans to the Lord if we want them to succeed. Proverbs 16:3 in the NAS version reads: “Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.” In Proverbs 19: 21 it reads, “Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the Lord will stand.”

The prophet Isaiah proclaimed to the people years ago His God-given plans as recorded in the message version in Isaiah 61: 1-2:

“The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because GOD ANNOINTED ME, HE SENT ME TO PREACH GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR, HEAL THE BROKEN HEARTED, ANNOUNCE FREEDOM TO THE CAPTIVES, PARDON ALL THE PRISONERS. God sent me to announce the YEAR OF HIS GRACE, a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies, and to comfort all that mourn.”

His challenge from years ago is a good challenge for us today.

May 2012 be a blessed year for you and yours. Remember God anointed (chose) you to do His will in 2012. Make your commitment today to grow daily in His Word and to serve Him with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Proverbs 22:9.

He who had a generous eye shall be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.

PRAYER:

May the New Year 2012 be a year that I not only grow spiritually every day but that I reach out to the world around me so that every person I make contact with see You through my walk and talk. I commit all my plans to You and ask for Your guiding hand upon my life to show me Your will.