Happy New Year?

Recommended Bible Reading: Genesis 1-3

New Year’s Day – I like it.  My two favorite holidays of the year are New Year’s Day and my birthday.  The reason I like both of these days so much is that they are days of beginning again.  I can look forward to the future and endeavor to make it a time different from the failures of the past.  I like this poem –

A NEW LEAF
He came to my desk with quivering lip; the lesson was done.
“Have you a new leaf for me, dear Teacher?  I have spoiled this one!”
I took his leaf, all soiled and blotted, and gave him a new one, all unspotted.
Then into his tired heart I smiled: “Do better now, my child.”

I went to the throne with trembling heart; the year was done.
“Have you a New Year for me, dear Master?  I have spoiled this one!”
He took my year all soiled and blotted, and gave me a new one, all unspotted.
Then into my tired heart He smiled: “Do better now, my child!”
-Kathleen Wheeler

I am glad to have a new year in front of me in which I can endeavor to do better.  In today’s reading we find that God planted two special trees in a garden: the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil (v.9).  Adam had a choice.  He could choose between life and death.  The tree that would bring death was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God placed it there as a test to Adam and with the warning that he would die if he ate of its fruit.

In Genesis 3 we find that Adam chose the way of disobedience which resulted in death.  Then God put him out of the garden so that he could not partake of the tree of life.  The only way that we can now have eternal life is to come to Christ, who in Matthew 1 was named Jesus, for He is the One who will save people from their sins.  We are all children of Adam.  Will we have a good new year?  That will depend on whether we follow Adam in disobedience or walk with Christ in yieldedness to Him.

This post was taken from My Morning Manna, Volume 1,  January 1 devotional.  To read more like this, visit our store where you can purchase your own copy of My Morning Manna.

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