His Unfailing Presence
By Bruce Cannon
Mitchell County
Another year I enter…Its history unknown;
Oh, how my feet would tremble…To tread its paths alone!
But I have heard a whisper, I know I shall be blest;
“My presence shall go with thee, And I will give thee rest.”
What will the New Year bring me? I may not, must not know;
Will it be love and rapture, Or loneliness and woe?
Hush! Hush! I hear His whisper; I surely shall be blest;
“My presence shall go with thee, And I will give thee rest.”
–Unknown Author
Happy New Year Everyone! Another year is passing and a new one dawns. Time slips by so quickly. The hustle and bustle of the holidays left us wondering where the time went.
As we enter into this New Year, I am so thankful we will not go it alone. If we know Christ as our Savior, He promises to go with us. His grace is always in the present tense. He is already in our tomorrows as much as He is in our today. Will hardships come our way? He will be there to buffer them and to see us through. Will joys unmeasured come our way? He will be there to make them even sweeter. Will we need to cry out to Him? He promised He would be there to hear our prayer. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
This New Year may offer many challenges, but it also offers so many opportunities. My prayer is for the Church to experience a genuine revival in 2020. Someone once said, “We will never change this world by the criticism of it, nor by the conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit of God.” I want that power and presence profoundly in my life and Church and wish that for all of us.
A census of the seven to a ten-mile radius around our churches would show that well over half of our neighbors do not go to Church and, most likely, do not know the Lord. That must be the explanation as to why we have not seen an end, or decrease, to the ever-increasing drug epidemic in our area or a huge reduction in the other social problems/sins that are steadily manifesting themselves.
Pray with me that God would send a great revival in our churches and that 2020 will be the year we can see, with 20/20 vision, the power of God moving in our midst. Pray that our churches would be full of Him and of those seeking the Lord. Pray that our streets would be safer and homes more Christ-like…. that 2020 will be the year that will truly count for Him,
From my heart to yours, Happy New Year!
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Reverend Bruce Cannon currently serves as the Senior Pastor of Bear Creek Baptist Church in Bakersville. Formerly he served as Director of Missions for the Bladen Baptist Association and he has served on the General Board of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
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