Project Description

2014/01

A Word to Women

“I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Joshua 1:5)

God spoke these words to Joshua as he was about to begin a new chapter in his life. He had just become leader of the Israelites in the place of Moses. Joshua was entering into a new work. He was also about to pass into a new land, Canaan. There he would encounter new challenges and conflicts, and receive new blessings. On the threshold of this critical moment, the Lord appeared to His servant and spoke a personal word to his heart, ‘I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee’.

As we stand at the entrance of a new year, with all its uncertainties, isn’t it good to be able to hold on to this promise and take it with us throughout the days of 2014? No doubt there will be mountain top experiences and valleys for us all. It may be that you will face financial worries this year, or problems in your work-place or in your home and family, or you may be called to go through a period of ill health.

When we look at these words and truly claim them for ourselves, for our own situations, we can face uncertain times knowing that the presence of our unfailing God goes with us.  No matter what 2014 holds for us, we may go forward confidently, in the knowledge that He will go with us, and that His grace will be sufficient for every problem and trial!

Our God is an unchanging God. His promise to Joshua began, ‘as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee’. Joshua had witnessed God’s unfailing grace and mercy to Moses for 40 years. He had experienced first-hand how the Lord had been with His servant in times of difficulty and trouble. That recollection would strengthen Joshua’s resolve for the days ahead. And in Heb 13:8 we have this promise, ‘Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever’ – past, present and future.  Isn’t it good for us to be reminded that our God never changes? Indeed He cannot change. Change infers imperfection. We either change from better to worse or from worse to better, but He is always perfect, He is forever the same. And this is the God who makes a promise to you – He’s the One who will be with you in 2014 and beyond.

Dear friend, remember God’s promise in the midst of the trials of life. It has been said that we should never doubt in the darkness what God has shown us in the light.  Hold on to the promises you have been given, plead them before the throne of grace – and in the hard times, as much as in the good times of 2014, you will prove the sufficiency of our unchangeable God!

At our Watchnight Service every year in Ballymena, my dad would quote these lines from the poem, ‘The Gate of the Year’

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown”
And he replied,
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God;
That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way”

May this be the experience of us all in 2014.

Alison Armstrong