Please enjoy today and tomorrow’s classics on New Year’s Eve and Day written by our Founder, Dr. Paul D. Lindstrom for his radio program “There’s No Place Like Home.“
Count Your Blessings
“Count your many blessings, name them one by one.” This is a song that we’ve heard so often, and in Psalm 65:11, it says, “Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness, and Thy paths drop fatness.” At year’s end, a Christian should stop to count his blessings. If he does this honestly and fully, no matter what his problems may have been during the year, he will have to confess that God, as always, has crowned the year with goodness. The coronation figure is often used in Scripture to speak of God’s blessings in the Christian life.
For example, in Psalm 103, we read, “Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies.” Even our testings and trials are always in the context of God’s grace and love. Christ Himself wore a crown of thorns so that we may be crowned with mercy and salvation. Consider also Psalm 5:12, “For Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous, with favor wilt thou compass him as with a shield.” The word, “compass” is the same Hebrew word as “crown.” The basic meaning being, “encircled.”
God’s Grace and Glory
Other jewels in the year-end crown for the believer are God’s grace and glory. We read in Proverbs 4:9, “Wisdom shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.” Then there is the wonderful testimony that “thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honor,” Psalm 8:5.
The Believer’s Crown
Finally, the believer’s crown is none other than the Lord Himself. Isaiah 28:5,” In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people.”
Most Christians also have an abundance of material blessings to count at the end of the year for which to thank the Lord. Even if they have none of these, however, God has crowned the year with goodness and favor, with loving-kindness and tender mercies, with grace and glory, and honor, and best of all, with His own presence. “Bless the Lord, oh, my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
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Christian Liberty Homeschools wishes you a very blessed New Year and encourages all to pray and work in 2025, and trust in the providence of God for the rest (Romans 8:28).
Christian Liberty Homeschools is here for you: https://www.homeschools.org