The Beginning of Months and Years

I'm not sure if you’re aware of it or not, but God's Word has something to say about the "beginning of months" and "years." Take for instance the passage in Exodus 12:2 were the Word says, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you."

When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, not only was their way of life changed, but even the way they kept track of time. A new calendar was started by the Lord beginning around the time of the Exodus. Each new year would automatically make them remember their beginning when God led them out of bondage from Egypt. Perhaps it would do us good as God's children to see the start of the new year as a time of personal reflection and a time of remembering of what God has done for us during the past year and leading us out of the bondage of sin at the moment of our salvation.

Then in Deuteronomy 11:12 we find these words, "A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year." We know that in the context of this verse God is speaking to Moses and is referring to the promise land that He prepared for the nation of Israel. But I believe that these two verses can have meaning for Christians today as we prepare to launch into a new year and a new decade.

Often times there is an inward and outward transformation that takes place at the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year. It is as if I can hear Paul audibly speak as he pens down the words of scripture in Philippians 3:13 "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before."

To be quite honest, some of us need to leave some things behind in the old year. I’m referring to those things that have been hindering our walk with Christ, those things that weaken our testimony, and those things that are in clear disobedience to the will and way of Christ. Leave them behind in 2019 and stretch forth to those things that are before us in 2020.

Stretch forth to things such as prayer, faithful church attendance, serving and ministering within the local church. We also must include meditating on God's Word, regular support of our local New Testament church by our tithes and offerings, and our obligation to reach others with the Gospel of Christ through Grace Giving Missions and personal Soul-Winning.

Paul writes in Hebrews 12:1b "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Would you be willing to do that as we enter into the new year? Do you have the desire to experience the joy of a cleansed heart by confession and repentance? If we are willing to do that, only then will we be able to say, "Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness." (Psalm 65:11) 

While contemplating those questions, remember that "The eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.” (Deuteronomy 11:12)

- Pastor Carroll, Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church