Facing the New Year

God’s way or man’s way? We face this choice many times and in many ways, every day of our lives.

Today we face many overwhelming challenges – political, economic and cultural. So, how do we meet these challenges of life - by trusting in God or by trusting in human institutions and ourselves?

Psalm 118:8-9 instruct us, “It is better to take refuge in Yehovah than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in Yehovah than to trust in princes.” Further, the Psalmist warns us “Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation” (Psalm 146:3). Twice David cried out to Yehovah for help because “deliverance by man is in vain” (Psalm 108:12; Psalm 60:11).

In the book of Jeremiah, scripture also teaches us that we offend God when we trust in men rather than in Him. “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from Yehovah. For he…will not see when prosperity comes” (Jeremiah 17:5-6). We are unable to deliver ourselves from the difficulties we face by depending on human solutions and ourselves. Worse yet, when we chose our solutions over God’s direction, we cut ourselves off from the blessing that will come from His solutions. We have made an idol of the human solutions by placing our trust in them instead of God.

The prophet Isaiah instructs us to “Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils” (Isaiah 2:22). Instead we should look to God who “gives life to all things” (1 Timothy 6:13). Solomon tells us to “Trust in Yehovah with all thy heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding: in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths.

Be not wise in thine own eyes” (Proverbs 3:5-7). With God’s direction, we can address the problems that entangle us.

Paul reminded the church that, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Jesus reassured His followers “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).

This does not mean that Jesus is promising to make our lives easy – quite the contrary. Peter warns believers that it may be God’s will for them to suffer (1 Peter 3:17) but reassures them that “those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right” (1 Peter 4:19).

We can be at peace and face our trials with joy knowing that nothing can separate from Jesus’ love, not “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword” (Romans 8:35). “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

Our challenges are spiritual, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12); therefore, the only solution is God.

Psalm 118:5-9

5 From my distress I called upon YEHOVAH;

YEHOVAH answered me and set me in a large place.

6 YEHOVAH is for me; I will not fear;

What can man do to me?

7 YEHOVAH is for me among those who help me;

Therefore I will look with satisfaction on those who hate me.

8 It is better to take refuge in YEHOVAH

Than to trust in man.

9 It is better to take refuge in YEHOVAH

Than to trust in princes.

Psalm 112:7

He will not fear evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

He will not fear evil tidings;

His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

8 His heart is upheld, he will not fear,

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.

5 Trust in Jehovah with all thy heart,

And lean not upon thine own understanding:

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him,

And he will direct thy paths.

7 Be not wise in thine own eyes;

Fear Jehovah, and depart from evil:

Psalm 131

O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;

Nor do I involve myself in great matters,

Or in things too difficult for me.

2 Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;

Like a weaned child rests against his mother,

My soul is like a weaned child within me.

3 O Israel, hope in the Lord

From this time forth and forever.

Psalm 108:12-13/Psalm 60:11-12

(Same wording appears in both texts)

12 Oh give us help against the adversary,

For deliverance by man is in vain.

13 Through God we will do valiantly,

And it is He who shall tread down our adversaries.

Jeremiah 17

5 Thus says YEHOVAH,

“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind

And makes flesh his strength,

And whose heart turns away from YEHOVAH.

6 “For he will be like a bush in the desert

And will not see when prosperity comes,

But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,

A land of salt without inhabitant.

7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in YEHOVAH

And whose trust is YEHOVAH.

8 “For he will be like a tree planted by the water,

That extends its roots by a stream

And will not fear when the heat comes;

But its leaves will be green,

And it will not be anxious in a year of drought

Nor cease to yield fruit.