You are one month into a new year. Has it been any different from last year?

It seems to me that each year, particularly this year, people expect that the arrival of a new year means the departure of last year’s trials and tribulations. It is as though a new year presents us with the hope that it will be different.

I fear that our new year expectations falsely parallel the expectations found in Revelations when Jesus returns. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more...and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, "Behold the dwelling of God is with mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them; He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

The dawning of a new year has brought a crippling stroke to the mother of a best friend; the sudden death of a good friend at the age of 50; a conversation with a teenager who expressed thoughts of suicide; the news of 3 Seton Hall college students who died in a dormitory fire.

If you thought the year 2000 was going to be void of trials and tribulations, you were mistaken. Each year brings with it afflictions, of sickness, of turmoil, of grief, of pain, of disappointment.

It doesn’t bring a new heaven and new earth. It DOES bring with it the very presence of God. God who works for good for those who love Him.
(Ro. 8:28)

Thomas Watson wrote, "As the hard frosts in winter bring on the flowers in spring, as the night ushers in the morning star, so the evils of affliction produce much good to those who love God. As plowing prepares the earth for a crop, so afflictions prepare and make us fit for glory. Afflictions are not prejudicial but beneficial to the saints."

May your afflictions of this new year bring a renewed sense of the presence of God. May your afflictions work for your good in that they conform you to Christ. Granted afflictions bring pain, God intends them to be growing pains.