Last New Year night we were at my brother-in-law’s home to usher in the New Year. This has become a tradition for the Berto and the Fortaleza families to gather together for the New Year festivities. Sure there were lots of food but I had to control my ap­petite and my eyes, making sure that my eyes were not bigger than my stomach. Also the threat of Mr. Bad Cholesterol is hanging like the Sword of Damocles over my head, coupled with veiled ad­monition from my dear wife. It has also become a tradition that they ask me to lead out in prayer of thanksgiving to our great God which I willingly accepted.

Like Jeremiah, we should ac­knowledge God’s great love for us every moment of every day. Jeremiah said, “Because of the LORD’S great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithful­ness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him”
We don’t have to wait for the New Year or Thanks­giving Day to give our thanks or ask Him to be our constant Guide in our jour­ney towards our heavenly home. He is the Way, the Truth and the Light. This is why King George in his 1939 New Year’s Day address to the British Empire quoted this statement, which has become my favorite and like to share it to you every year just in case you and I forget it. “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 light and safer than a known way.’”

Anyone who does not put his hand into the hand of God is like the blind man looking for a black monkey in a cave in the dead of night. Jesus said that he is the Light and only with that Light can we navigate in this spiritually dark world. We will not be blind any lon­ger because God will give us the sight to see where we are going. Vaya con Dios (Go with God) says the song. Going with God with you hand in His’ will make you fearless even if you are walking” through the valley of the shadow of death” like King David was. He was very certain that God will be with him even if his enemies were threatening him on every side.

How can a person go with God? In Psalms 1 we find the formula of going with Him. We read, 1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mock­ers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who medi­tates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree plant­ed by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sin­ners in the assembly of the righ­teous. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. Psalms 1:1-6. NIV

Here, the Psalmist is saying that by having delight or happiness in the law of the Lord, by meditating and following it is the only way we can have that fellowship with God. Jesus Christ himself said that He is the Way, the Truth and the Light and no one can get to the Father except through Him.
All of you are familiar with the road signs when driving around the city or when traveling through unfamiliar places. When the road signs are placed right, and if you follow them you will get to where you are going. But when some rogues turn the signs around and point them to another direction, then you or me, the travelers get confused and lost. The greatest

Rogue on earth (Satan) has tried to change the directions that God had installed to point us to heaven by turning some of the signposts around to confuse us, to lead us to destruction, but God has given us the true signposts in His Word, the Bible. If we study it, with earnestness and prayer, God will keep our feet on the road that leads to heaven. In His ser­mon on the mount, Jesus said, “13Go in through the narrow gate. The gate to destruction is wide, and the road that leads there is easy to follow. A lot of people go through that gate. 14But the gate to life is very narrow. The road that leads there is so hard to fol­low that only a few people find it”. Matthew 7: 13, 14 CEV So when we have God’s Light with us, we will be able to find the way out of this dark world. We will not be like that blind man looking for the black monkey in the night in a cave. If we do not put our hands in the hand of God, every known way is not safe to travel in. Let us strive to stay in that narrow way that leads to life.

Psalm 91 is familiar to many of us who know their Bible. Let us end this study by looking at the entire chapter. “1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my ref­uge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”. 3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler[a]and from the perilous pes­tilence.4 He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. 5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor of the pesti­lence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. 8 Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked. 9 Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, 10 No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; 11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. 12 In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. 13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. 14 “Be­cause he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salva­tion.” Psalm91.
There, my friends, is our Guide for the New Year. VAYA CON DIOS