A New Year's declaration from 300+ yrs. ago.
A New Year's Resolution (By Matthew Henry: 1662-1714) a British minister and author. His was a surrendered life whose trust in a sovereign God was unshakeable.
"My times are in Your hand!"
(Psalm 31:15)
"Firmly believing that my times are in God's hand, I here submit myself and all my affairs for the ensuing year, to the wise and gracious disposal of God's divine providence.
Whether God appoints for me . . . .
health or sickness,
peace or trouble,
comforts or crosses,
life or death--
may His holy will be done!
All my time, strength, and service, I devote to the honor of the Lord Jesus--and even my common actions.
It is my earnest expectation, hope, and desire, my constant aim and endeavor--that Jesus Christ may be magnified in me.
In everything I have to do--my entire dependence is upon Jesus Christ for strength.
And whatever I do in word or deed, I desire to do all in His name, to make Him my Alpha and Omega.
I have all from Him--and I would use all for Him. If this should prove a year of affliction, a sorrowful year to me--I will fetch all my supports and comforts from the Lord Jesus and stay myself upon Him, His everlasting consolations, and the good hope I have in Him through grace.
And if it should be my dying year--then my times are in the hand of the Lord Jesus.
And with a humble reliance upon His mediation, I would venture into the eternal world looking for the blessed hope. Dying as well as living--Jesus Christ will, I trust, be gain and advantage to me.
Oh, that the grace of God may be sufficient for me, to keep me always a humble sense of my own unworthiness, weakness, folly, and infirmity--together with a humble dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ for both righteousness and strength."
~ Matthew Henry (1662-1714) ... See more