Encouragement at the Start of a New Year.

A very happy new year to you all, and thank you for your continued prayers for the hard places of the world, especially for the regions where Interserve partners minister the love of Christ and the hope of the Gospel to the people around them.

As a new year dawns, it is a time to reflect on the past year, and to look ahead with hope to this coming year. For many people around the world, the past year has been one of tragedy, conflict, sorrow, violence and uncertainty.

However, in the midst of all that we see and hear reported in the media, there have also been many glimpses of hope, lights flickering in the darkest of places, and of many, many people being drawn to know the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ.

So as we approach the new year, I want to leave you with a few Scripture verses, promises of hope, of a God who does not change, of a God who still reigns on high over all the nations of the world, and who hears and answers the prayers of His people.

And to encourage you to continue to pray with us over this coming year, knowing that the prayers of God’s people can and do achieve far more than we can ever hope or imagine.

‘O Lord, God of our ancestors, are you not God in heaven? Do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In your hand are power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you.’

Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.’

They sing a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.  They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’

Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.