Transcript
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You probably know that the month of January is named after the Roman God Janus. Isn't it odd that despite the impact of the Christian faith, we still use these pagan names both for the days of the week and the months of the year? It's always intrigued me, and yet perhaps it's in God's providence as a reminder to us that we live between the times, like between Christmas and New Year, between the coming of Christ and then the return of Christ. We're part of God's new creation. We're new men and women in Christ, but we're still living in a world that's alienated from Him. And even the names of the days of the week and the months of the year are a kind of constant reminder of that to us. But back to Janus. He's the God who faces both ways. He looks backwards to the past and looks forward to the future. But even if we don't especially like the fact that the month of January is named after a Roman deity, I think we can understand the experience. And there's a very specifically Christian version of it, because as Christians, we too live facing both ways, not in the sense of being a hypocrite, but in the sense of living looking back to what the Lord Jesus did in his first coming and looking forwards to what he will do at his second coming. And so we sometimes say that as Christians, we live between the times. We live the Christian life, between the already of what Christ has done and the not yet of the completion of his work. And actually we're reminded of that every time we take the Lord's Supper. We proclaim his death in the past until he comes again in the future. So for a moment today, let's look back. That's actually one of the practices our spiritual forefathers encouraged. If you've ever read John Flavel's wonderful book the Mystery of Providence, or a similar Christian book from the past, you'll know that these wise old pastors often encouraged their people to observe God's providences in their lives, but then also to record them, because they knew how forgetful we are. I've sometimes experienced things and thought at the time, I'll never be the same again after that. And yet before too long, it's as though the event never happened. The other day I was reading about ministers roughly contemporary with John Flavel, who kept journals of God's dealings with them. And one of them transferred to another book, a selection of God's providences that he said he could reflect on in his declining years, because, as he wrote, they were and here I quote him, things that might be of use to me from what I have found of God's love in the days of old. And he is the same, and his compassions fail not. You see, he was like a squirrel storing up nuts for the winter of old age. And that would be a good spiritual exercise for all of us in the in between days, between Christmas and New Year, when perhaps some of us will have a little more leisure. In fact, if you remember, it's something you were probably taught to do as a youngster if you were brought up in a church or a Sunday school and you learned to sing the song count your blessings, and you sang when upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. I know that's not the greatest poetry in the world, but it's terrific counsel. So I suspect it would be really helpful for you and for me to find time to do a bit of spiritual counting of the blessings of the past. And perhaps it will surprise you what the Lord has done, and then you'll be able to say with the Psalmist in Psalm 126:3 the Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.