As we near the end of this crazy year of 2021, here’s quote from the book Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery, “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” There may be chaos, confusion, a pandemic, racial inequality, political division, a President that is unwilling to accept defeat but there are no mistakes yet in the new day. All these mistakes and problems are in the past there will be no new ones at midnight January 1, 2021. That’s enough to make you shout. The year 2022 will start with excitement and anticipation for an end to COVID-19, a new direction for the country and hope for movement for racial and gender equity and there are no mistakes in it yet at one second after midnight. To prepare us for that let’s get ready with twenty-two inspirational scriptures. I pray that 2022 will be your best year yet.
Start the New Year off right by meditating on God’s Word:
1. Ecclesiastes 3:1 (BBE) For everything there is a fixed time, and a time for every business under the sun.
2. Proverbs 16:3 (BBE) Put your works into the hands of the Lord, and your purposes will be made certain.
3. Psalm 90:12 (BBE) So give us knowledge of the number of our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.
4. Jeremiah 29:11 (BBE) For I am conscious of my thoughts about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope at the end.
5. Proverbs 16:9 (BBE) A man may make designs for his way, but the Lord is the guide of his steps.
6. Philippians 3:13-14 (BBE)13 Brothers, it is clear to me that I have not come to that knowledge; but one thing I do, letting go those things which are past, and stretching out to the things which are before,14 I go forward to the mark, even the reward of the high purpose of God in Christ Jesus.
7. Psalm 65:11 (BBE) The year is crowned with the good you give; life-giving rain is dropping from your footsteps,
8. Philippians 4:6-7 (BBE)6 Have no cares; but in everything with prayer and praise put your requests before God.7 And the peace of God, which is deeper than all knowledge, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
9. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (BBE) So if any man is in Christ, he is in a new world: the old things have come to an end; they have truly become new.
10. 1 Peter 1:3 (BBE) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through his great mercy has given us a new birth and a living hope by the coming again of Jesus Christ from the dead,
11. Proverbs 3:5-6 (BBE)5 Put all your hope in God, not looking to your reason for support.6 In all your ways give ear to him, and he will make straight your footsteps.
12. Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)31 But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness.
13. Lamentations 3:22-24 (BBE)22 It is through the Lord's love that we have not come to destruction, because his mercies have no limit.23 They are new every morning; great is your good faith.24 I said to myself, The Lord is my heritage; and because of this I will have hope in him.
14. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (BBE) He has made everything right in its time; but he has made their hearts without knowledge, so that man is unable to see the works of God, from the first to the last.
15. Mark 12:28-31 (BBE)28 And one of the scribes came, and hearing their argument together, and seeing that he had given them a good answer, put the question to him, Which law is the first of all?29 Jesus said in answer, The first is, Give ear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord;30 And you are to have love for the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.31 The second is this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. There is no other law greater than these.
16. Matthew 6:25-26 (BBE)25 So I say to you, Take no thought for your life, about food or drink, or about clothing for your body. Is not life more than food, and the body more than its clothing?26 See the birds of heaven; they do not put seeds in the earth, they do not get in grain, or put it in store-houses; and your Father in heaven gives them food. Are you not of much more value than they?
17. Ezekiel 36:26-28 (BBE)26 And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.27 And I will put my spirit in you, causing you to be guided by my rules, and you will keep my orders and do them.28 So that you may go on living in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you will be to me a people, and I will be to you a God.
18. Psalm 96:1-3 (BBE)1 O make a new song to the Lord; let all the earth make melody to the Lord.2 Make songs to the Lord, blessing his name; give the good news of his salvation day by day.3 Make clear his glory to the nations, and his wonders to all the peoples.
19. James 1:17-18 (BBE)17 Every good and true thing is given to us from heaven, coming from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or any shade made by turning.18 Of his purpose he gave us being, by his true word, so that we might be, in a sense, the first-fruits of all the things which he had made.
20. James 4:6,10 (BBE) 6 But he gives more grace. So that the Writings say, God is against the men of pride, but he gives grace to those who make themselves low before him. 10 Make yourselves low in the eyes of the Lord and you will be lifted up by him.
21. Isaiah 43:18-19 (BBE) 18 Give no thought to the things which are past; let the early times go out of your minds.19 See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country.
22. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (BBE) 17 For our present trouble, which is only for a short time, is working out for us a much greater weight of glory; 18 While our minds are not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are for a time; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Let’s make this the year where we see real life change, not only in ourselves but in the people around us because this will be the year, we decide to give it all up to the only one who is making all things new, Jesus Christ!