C.H. Spurgeon’s Seven Seasonable Questions For All Believers
The Sword and the Trowel January, 1868 "Combat With Sin and Of Labour For The Lord"
(William Gurnall The Christian in Complete Armour "The Christian's life is a continual warfare and so he need a sword as much as a trowel.")
Nehemiah 4:17-18a "Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked."
I. Cannot I do more for Jesus this year than I have done in the past? Have I no wasted time or rusting talents?
II. What shall I do? What form shall my extra effort take? I must not be long in selecting, for time speeds; but, without neglecting my old work, what new labor shall I enter upon at once?
III. Can I give more to the work of Jesus? Ought I not to practice weekly storing? Am I a faithful steward with my substance? Am I really returning to my Lord in proportion as he has given to me?
IV. Ought I not, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to become more Christ-like this year? I am certainly older in years, should I not grow in grace in proportion? Shall I not seek more grace at once?
V. Shall not my prayers be more constant and fervent during this year? Might not my whole life be more forceful for good if I had more power in secret prayer? Shall I be content to go on as I have done in this matter?
VI. Must I not labor after nearer communion to Jesus? Why should I not walk in the light of his countenance? Why should I cleave so much to worldly things? Shall there not, by God’s grace, be an improvement in this respect? Is there not grievous room for it?
VII. Can I not this very day aim personally at the conversion of at least one soul? Might I not go at once and talk with some unconverted relative or neighbor about his soul? O Lord, go with me! O Lord, use me in thy service!
Pray that this year thou mayst be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ, and enter oftener into the banqueting-house of His love. Pray that thou mayst be an example and a blessing unto others, and that thou mayst live more to the glory of thy Master.
The motto for this year must be "Continue in prayer." (Colossians 4:2)
Augustus Toplady, in his private diary, December 31, 1767
Upon a review of the past year, I desire to confess that my unfaithfulness has been exceeding great; my sins still greater; God’s mercies greater than both...My short-comings and my mis-doings, my unbelief and want of love, would sink me into the lowest hell, was not Jesus my righteousness and my Redeemer.
Octavius Winslow Daily Walking With God
All wisdom to guide, all power to uphold, all love to soothe, all grace to support, all tenderness to sympathize, dwells in Christ. Let us, then, gird ourselves to a fresh taking hold of Christ. We must walk through this year not by sight, but by faith - and that faith must deal simply and directly, with Jesus.
A New Year's message from Psalm 31:15 "My Times In God's Hands"
http://www.reformedreader.org/rbb/winslow/godshand.htm
J.C. Ryle Old Paths
Let us strive every year to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is sad to be content with a little religion. It is honourable to covet the best gifts. We ought not to be satisfied with the same kind of hearing, and reading, and praying, which satisfied us in years gone by. We ought to labour every year to throw more heart and reality into everything we do in our religion. To love Christ more intensely, to abhor evil more thoroughly, to cleave to what is good more closely, to watch even our least ways more narrowly, to declare very plainly that we seek a country, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and be clothed with Him in every place and company, to see more, to feel more, to know more, to do more, these ought to be our aims and desires every year we begin. Truly there is room for improvement in us all.
A.B. Simpson “The Rest of the Oil” Leviticus 14:18 "The rest of the oil in his palm the priest shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed and make atonement for him before the LORD."
Shall the coming months be marked by a diligent, heart-searching application of the rest of the oil (see Leviticus 14:17-20) to the yet unoccupied possibilities of our life and service? Let us think of the things we have not received, of some of the vessels that have not yet been filled, of some of the places in our lives that the Holy Spirit has not yet possessed for God and signalized by His glory and His presence.
Have we known His fullness of grace in our spiritual lives? Have we tasted a little of His glory? Have we believed His promise for the mind, the soul, the spirit? Have we known all His possibilities for the body? Have we tested Him in His power to control the events of nature and to move the hearts of men and nations? Have we begun to understand the ministry of prayer, as God would have us exercise it? God give us the rest of the oil!
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
New Year's Sermon, 1963 “The Search For Happiness – Psalm 1:1-2”
“In Christ” a New Year’s sermon on John 1:16 originally preached Jan. 5, 1964
https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/book-of-john/in-christ/
On the Parable of the Prodigal Son
http://articles.ochristian.com/article538.shtml
What if you put all your actions of the past year down on paper? What if you had kept a record of all your thoughts and desires, your ambitions and imaginings? Would you consent to their publication with your name beneath them? What are you now in comparison with what you once were? Look at your hands, are they clean? Look at your lips, are they pure? Look at your feet, where have they trodden, where have they been? Look at yourself! Is it really you? Then look around you at your position and surroundings! Do not shirk it! Be honest!
On what have you been living? Look! Is it food fit for men? Look at what you enjoy. Face it calmly. Is it worthy of a creature created by God with intelligence and understanding? Does it honor man, let alone God? Is it swine's food or is it really fit for human consumption?
Walter Chantry, adapted from "Living and Dying Under the Blessing of God: Psalm 1", The Banner of Truth December 2008
"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
Or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither."
At the end of one year and the start of another it is good to examine ourselves. 2 Corinthians 13:5 Is our pathway straight? Or have we begun to deviate from the Way of God? Matthew 7:13-14
It is possible to make choices which distance us from godly friends. It is possible to drift into the entwining of our lives in ever deeper relationships with the ungodly, with sinners, with blasphemous mockers. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 Do we need a fresh resolve to cherish and protect godly companionships for us and for our children? Should we withdraw from relationships with harmful, sinful influences? What are we watching on TV and DVDs? What are we listening to on the radio and our ipods? Ephesians 5:15-16 From what sinful entanglements do we need to free ourselves? Hebrews 12:1
Have the times spent and the discipline exercised in Scripture meditation declined? When iniquity abounds the love of the Word and of good books cools. Amos 8:11, Matthew 24:12 Have we even made a series of choices which diminish our presence in a biblical church? Should a correction of course be taken because we value God’s blessing above all temporal acquisitions?
Are our spiritual leaves withering? Is our fruitfulness in Christian grace and service obviously drying up? It is possible for genuine Christians to have seasons of relative dryness and lack of productivity. But if we long to remain under the care of God and to find success in our devotion to Him, we must keep watch over our souls. 1 Corinthians 16:13 We cannot allow our walk to veer off into sheer worldliness and neglect of heavenly matters.
We must surround ourselves with those who love and obey the Lord. And we must fill our thoughts with His Word. When we draw near to God again we have His promise that He will draw near to us with renewed grace. Proverbs 8:17, James 4:8
A.W. Tozer
The Size of the Soul
If we are foolish enough to do it, we may spend the New Year vainly begging God to send revival, while we blindly overlook His requirements and continue to break His laws. Or we can begin now to obey and learn the blessedness of obedience. The Word of God is before us. We have only to read and do what is written there and revival will come.
The Warfare of the Spirit
For some of us last year was one in which we did not acquit ourselves very nobly as Christians, considering the infinite power available to us through the indwelling Spirit. But through the goodness of God we may go to the school of our failures. The man of illuminated mind will learn from his mistakes, yes even from his sins. If his heart is trusting and penitent, he can be a better man next year for last year’s fault—but let him not return again to folly. Repentance should be radical and thorough, and the best repentance for a wrong act, as Fenelon said, is not to do it again.
On 2 Corinthians 5:10 - For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
At that day there will be no hiding in the crowd. Each one will come carrying his own book of history under his arm. So we should close reverently the book of the year just gone; we shall see it again.
Colossians 3:17
Whatever you do (THIS YEAR), in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Thomas a’ Kempis
Let this be your whole endeavor, this your prayer, this your desire—that you may be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only.
Sir John Bowring Matins and Vespers, 1824
How wise, departing weeks to call
To stern inquiry's solemn bar,
And take a strict account of all!
For all in heaven recorded are:
The talents lost—the moments run
To waste—the sins of act, of thought,
Ten thousand deeds of folly done,
And countless virtues cherish'd not.
Karl Barth's Prayer for the New Year
O Lord, our Father!
We have gathered here at the turn of the year
because we do not want to be alone but want to be with each other,
and together be united with you.
Our hearts are filled with somber thoughts
as we reflect on our misdeeds of the past year.
And our ears are deafened by the voices of the radio and in the newspapers,
with their numerous predictions for the coming year.
Instead we want to hear your word, your voice, your assurance, your guidance.
We know that you are in our midst,
and are eager to give us all that we need, whether we ask or not.
On this night we ask for one thing only:
that you collect our scattered thoughts,
getting rid of the confused and defiant thoughts that may distract us,
and thus enable us to concentrate on your limitless generosity to us.
You were abundantly generous to us last year,
and will be no less generous to us next year, and in every year to come.
Fill us with gratitude to you.
1 Samuel 25:6 New Year's Blessing
Long life (good health) to you, and peace to you, to your family, and to all that is yours.
C.H. Spurgeon’s meditation for January 1 on Song of Solomon 1:4 "We will be glad and rejoice in Thee."
We will be glad and rejoice in Thee. We will not open the gates of the year to the dolorous notes of the sackbut, but to the sweet strains of the harp of joy, and the high sounding cymbals of gladness. "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation." We, the called and faithful and chosen, we will drive away our griefs, and set up our banners of confidence in the name of God. Let others lament over their troubles, we who have the sweetening tree to cast into Marah's bitter pool, with joy will magnify the Lord. Eternal Spirit, our effectual Comforter, we who are the temples in which Thou dwellest, will never cease from adoring and blessing the name of Jesus.
We WILL, we are resolved about it, Jesus must have the crown of our heart's delight; we will not dishonour our Bridegroom by mourning in His presence. We are ordained to be the minstrels of the skies, let us rehearse our everlasting anthem before we sing it in the halls of the New Jerusalem. We will BE GLAD AND REJOICE: two words with one sense, double joy, blessedness upon blessedness. Need there be any limit to our rejoicing in the Lord even now? We will be glad and rejoice IN THEE. That last word is the meat in the dish, the kernel of the nut, the soul of the text. What heavens are laid up in Jesus! What rivers of infinite bliss have their source, ay, and every drop of their fulness in Him! Since, O sweet Lord Jesus, Thou art the present portion of Thy people, favour us this year with such a sense of Thy preciousness, that from its first to its last day we may be glad and rejoice in Thee.
Let January open with joy in the Lord, and December close with gladness in Jesus.
“Good Cheer For The New Year”
https://www.spurgeongems.org/chsbm13.pdf
Suppose that in this year we were filled with the desire to have our eyes always upon God from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, to be always conscious that He sees us, to be always sensible of His presence— more than that, to be always longing to be obedient to His commands, always desiring to win souls for His dear Son from the beginning of the year to the end of the year; what a happy thing this would be! If we could abide in a spirit of prayerfulness or thankfulness, devout, consecrated, loving, tender, it would be a high thing to attain unto.
Warning
C.H. Spurgeon, Evening, December 31, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink."
https://reformed.org/master/index.html?mainframe=/books/morneve/mornev12.html
Jeremiah 8:20 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."
Not saved! Dear reader, is this your mournful plight? Warned of the judgment to come, bidden to escape for your life, and yet at this moment not saved! You know the way of salvation, you read it in the Bible, you hear it from the pulpit, it is explained to you by friends, and yet you neglect it, and therefore you are not saved. You will be without excuse when the Lord shall judge the quick and dead. The Holy Spirit has given more or less of blessing upon the word which has been preached in your hearing, and times of refreshing have come from the divine presence, and yet you are without Christ. All these hopeful seasons have come and gone-your summer and your harvest have past-and yet you are not saved. Years have followed one another into eternity, and your last year will soon be here: youth has gone, manhood is going, and yet you are not saved.
O be wise, be wise in time, and ere another year begins, believe in Jesus, who is able to save to the uttermost. Consecrate these last hours to lonely thought, and if deep repentance be bred in you, it will be well; and if it lead to a humble faith in Jesus, it will be best of all. O see to it that this year pass not away, and you an unforgiven spirit. Let not the new year's midnight peals sound upon a joyless spirit! Now, NOW, NOW believe, and live.