Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking Up To God

Looking Back, Looking forward, Looking UP!

Robert A. Glass

January 6, 2019

At the beginning of a new year, a new work, a new growing relationship, it is good to take inventory of what we have done, where we are and where we need to go. We need to ask, are our lives right with God?

David was a man. Yes, a man appointed by God as King of Israel but also a sinful man. In (Psalms 51:1-4) He faced God concerning his sins. “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

On inventory, David made a plan! (Psalms 51:10) “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Do we need to create a clean heart again in ourselves?

In this past year, WE have lost family members and we have been blessed by God in many ways. Our homes, our food, our families even our very lives. (Ephesians 1:3) “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” Many of us have been seriously sick this past year and the Lord has brought us back to health. (Acts 17:28) “For in him we live, and move, and have our very being.” This has been a very good year.

The Lord has also blessed us to continue to gather HERE for services. We are small, but we are here. Satan smiled when a myriad of congregations closed this year. Indifference and lack of faith closed most. Age even closed some. We cannot rest when souls are being lost. Each DAY of the past year has led us to today! What shall we do with the New Year we have been brought to?

(Mark 16:15) “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (John 4:35) “I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

The blessings of the last year should propel us into doing more in the next year.

In looking forward to the New Year, we should remember those in our families who have passed this year. Life is short and eternity is forever. The future is uncertain.

(James 4:14) “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

(Isaiah 40:7-8) “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

A wise man once said, “Time is like a mighty ship that bears us onward to the place where time will be no more.” The New Year now makes us aware of time.

(Hebrews 9:27) And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

We should plan ahead looking upward to God,

(Hebrews 12:2) “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”

(Psalms 121:1-8) I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

1. Help, Security

2. Stability

3. 24/7 On Guard

4. He Keeps us.

5. He preserves and protects us

6. He keeps our death and our birth in Heaven

We should look to God for our strength in 2019. Only in Christ can 2019 be a blessing to us. Without Christ, Every DAY draws us closer to eternity. Every heartbeat can be our last. Every breath. (Will there be a next day? Heartbeat? Breath?)

Looking back, are we right with God? Looking forward to 2019 are we right with God? Looking upward to eternity are we right with God? These are serious questions! Eternity rests on these answers!

Inside your hearts LOOK UP! What do you see? A New Year brings a time for inward reflection. Kink Agrippa was almost persuaded (Acts 26:28) “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”