There is something unique about the New Year that makes us especially aware of time. We look back upon the past year with its joys and sorrows and face the new one with its uncertainties. We make resolutions to better ourselves and project plans into the new year so that we have definite goals toward which to work. But despite our well-laid plans, we realize that all the time we really have is now, the now of today.
None of us know when out time will be up.
As a great French king lay dying, he begged his physicians for time. “I will give half my kingdom for a moment of time,” he cried. But time cannot be bought.
Thomas Edison expressed it in these words, “Time is the cheapest thing that exists in the world and the only thing we cannot buy.”
Fred Smith made this statement, “Great men never complained about the lack of time. They accomplished everything they ever did in twenty-four hour days.”
Benjamin Franklin said, “You may delay, but time will not.”
So it is good for us to be reminded at the beginning of this New Year that time is running out. We can misuse time and waste it, but we cannot stop it. Christians are exhorted to redeem the time (read Ephesians 5: 16). In other words, “buy up the opportunities- make the most of it.” We shall give account at the judgment seat of Christ for how we spent our days and hours.
A little while! He’ll come again; Let us the precious hours redeem; Our only grief to give Him pain, Our joy to serve and follow Him; Watching and ready may we be, As those who long their Lord to see.
The New Year is also a time when many resolve to start over. Many a man or woman whose life is troubled, tormented, and tortured by the power of sin would give anything for the chance to start life all over again. “Things would be different ifl had another chance,” they say.
Well, there is good news for those who have this desire for a fresh beginning. The Lord Jesus Christ offers you the opportunity to be born again! No, you cannot tum back the years and become an infant once more, but you can have an entirely new and wonderfully different life through the transforming power of the Saviour. He will bring into your life new motives, new ideas, new joys, new attitudes, new friends, and new ambitions. In short, He will bring newness of life. A whole new world opens up to us when we surrender ourselves into His hands. The Apostle Paul says it this way, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5: 17).
Would you like to be born again? Would you like to see your unhappy past buried in the depths of God’s love? Would you like to know that all your sins are cleansed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Would you like all things to become new? Then come to Christ and confess your need to Him; invite Him to come into your heart and life as Lord and Saviour, and He will meet your need RIGHT NOW!