For all those who love his Son Jesus Christ, God the Father Promises for another year:

1. I will never leave you nor forsake you (Deut. 31:6). You will need to believe this promise when you have sinned and are tempted to stay home on Sunday morning, thinking that you are too bad to go to church. Nonsense! He loved you when you were already unworthy and he is not about to abandon you when you have abandoned him.

2. I will not share my glory with you (Isa. 42:8). God is not stingy when he promises this to you – he is protecting you from what would destroy you – you’re pride in thinking that you are god. Resolve to have no other gods before you this year.

3. I will do you good and not harm you (Jer. 29:11). You will need to bank on this promise when he does bring affliction into your life as he did to his people in the days of Jeremiah. When God makes this promise he means he does not have evil intent nor does he afflict willy-nilly with no ultimate purpose in mind.

4. I will exalt my Son in your life (1 Cor. 15:28; Eph. 1:4). Nothing is going to hinder the Father from making his character known through his Son. You and I should then joyfully say with John the Baptist: “I will decrease – Christ must increase.”

5. I will do all that I have purposed to do (Isa. 46:8-11). God is sovereign over everything and God is resolved to make his grace known in your life this year. God does not need you or me or lower tax rates or gun control or a bull market or a better health care system or your employers consent to do mighty things in your life.

6. I will be slow to anger and go overboard in steadfast love (Psalm 103:8; James 1:18). God is not like you and me – he will never, not a single time, have an emotional imbalance that causes him to say, “I’m sorry – I was too _____.” Oh how comforting this is when we are out-of-sorts so often with our emotions and fickle in our ways.

7. I will be just in all my dealings (Gen. 18:25). Like Abraham, we will take comfort in the fact that God sees the hearts of all men and will conduct himself in mercy and grace as he deals with mankind – either now or later.

8. I will never sleep but work continually (Psalm 121). This is sweet sleep for our tired minds. You can sleep and nap while God stays awake and stands guard over your life. He will not fall asleep on the job and wake up with you falling on the floor of life like what happens to us when we doze off with a glass of water in our hands.

9. I will accept my Son’s intercession for you (Heb. 7:25). This is our only hope as we pray continually, that the Father will hear our prayers for another year. The blood of the cross is infinite in its value to pay for as many prayers as you utter.

10. I will move your heart to trust me more (Isa. 12:2). Let us then sing for another year, “Oh for grace to trust him more”.

11. I will supply all your need to persevere in faith (Phil. 4:18-20). Since this is true, you and I will not look anywhere else for courage, strength, and hope, nor will we fret and fret and fret about all the fretful stuff that is going on around us. I think that if we could see the host of angels with swords drawn ready to carry out the purposes of God in our lives we would live less fearful lives (2 Kings 6:15-17).

12. I Promise to keep all my promises that I have made (Jer. 32:27; Num.23:19). Praise the Lord that on Dec. 31, 2013, not a single word of the Lord will be suspect at the end of this New Year.