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As we look back, as we look around, as look inward, as we look forward. Reckoning, recaps, resets and resolutions, who do we trust? What do we put our trust in? Who do we put our trust in? “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:6 However last year went for you, however this year will go, the God of infinite years, the God who created all things, the God who holds all things, together, who is before all things,, stands witness and watch, He can be trusted. Yesterday, today and forever. Our limited vantage point on time, our inward looking management of time, our selfish wasting of time, may justifiably cause us to question how all can be made right, all can be restored, all things can be made new. Sometimes more than one human lifetime must pass before grief can resolve into understanding, before pain is dissolved into peace and healing, before justice is served, before misunderstanding becomes understanding, before the old is made new, before bitter is made sweet. He holds all time in His hands, God is above all things, He is Sovereign. In all and through all, God is good - past, present, and future. Some of us journey ‘blissfully’ years of ‘happiness’ flecked only here and there with sorrow. Others walk a very different path. But we all need Jesus, and we need one another to keep planting one foot firmly in front of another - to carry and be carried, to hold each others hand and be held, to encourage as we are encouraged, to stand beside, in our turn. We take up the precious and terrible burden of this life, together, and present ourselves, together, at the start of a New Year, as “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1-2), as “living stones” (1 Peter 2:4-5), mindful that time is a gift, time is short; time is precious, mindful that it is in Christ alone, God alone, who establishes the work of our hands, the steps of our feet and the very breath in our lungs. We thank you, O God who Was, and Is, and Is to Come, for this threshold upon which we stand, this path upon which we walk, this journey which we travel. You surround behind and before, You protect in and around, You guide our every step. We commit this year to Your care, to Your purpose, to You and You alone. For Your glory and our good (Romans 8:28-30, Psalm 27). We resolve to trust You, to trust You together, collectively when own faith falters, in our “unbelief” (MarK 9:24). We resolve to lend courage to one another, that all may have spiritual “daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), “springs of living water” (Revelation 12:6). We resolve to recognise with closer attention, to see with fresh eyes, Your daily goodness to us, Your unceasing grace. To savour joyful moments, to rejoice, even in our struggles, pain and hurts, to see You in all and through all. And to continually come to You, “in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving” and gratitude (Philippians 4:4-7). Indeed, may this be the year our thanksgiving, our gratitude, outstrips and overruns our asking, our often selfish need to reset and recap, our reckoning and blaming. Thanksgiving and gratitude, for that would be 365 days well-numbered and well-spent, no matter what they may give or take. We look to the saints who have gone before us, the faithful fellow men and women, who bear witness to Your faithfulness, providence and love to all generations. We renew our trust that You will be faithful in ours, to our generation. All time is Yours, help us to steward well the years You entrust to us, to serve You in the days You call us into, to honour You in the hours You gracefully give to us. Help to redeem and use time well, for Your Glory; to use time to go, to make disciples, to baptise, to teach; to redeem time to love You and to love all those around us and beyond us with Your love. We trust You Jesus,, we love you Jesus, You are so good. We rest in You, Your resolve to make us completely like Yourself, to make all things new, and to fill the earth with Your glory. By His grace and for His glory, yesterday, today and forever. “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing … With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thessalonians 1