Banquet on New Year’s Day

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Back in 1961 when I first got my driver’s license, one of the places I couldn’t wait to drive to was McDonald’s. My friends and I loved their greasy hamburgers ($.25) and fries ($.10), and going someplace our parents didn’t like held a certain charm. (“Eat in the car?” they’d say. “Unthinkable!”) But there was no place we’d rather dine, no menu more delicious.

Those Golden Arches were a welcome site to me 50 years ago and still are today. Much has changed about McDonald’s, but we can always count on the same tasty burgers and fries. No matter where the familiar arches appear, we won’t be disappointed, because we know what they represent.

Today is the first day of a new year, and just like the Golden Arches let us know what’s beneath them, I’ve chosen an identifying banner to arch over my 2012, something I’ll be asking God to make part of my year as sure as burgers and fries are part of McDonalds.

I’ve decided on Isaiah 30:15: ”In quietness and trust is your strength.”  God has said, “In the next 366 days (leap year), when your spirit gets riled, quiet it down. Trust me for the results of your year. Have confidence that I can expertly move you through whatever comes your way.”

The Bible is chuck full of practical promises like that, available for each of our 2012s. We can select or reject what God offers, but he never forces us to take advantage of the perks of being in his family. He simply lays them out like a beautifully prepared banquet, then lets us fill our plates as we wish. Or, we can leave the banquet table hungry.

My “golden arch” passage for 2012 also explains the possible results of ignoring God’s promises:

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift! (Isaiah 30:15,16)

In other words, if you want to trust your “swift horses” rather than Me, you’ll find your enemies on horses that are swifter yet!

We might think our ideas of how to best manage the events of 2012 are superior to God’s, but from this Scripture we learn that isn’t true. His plans are always better than ours and are always made for our good, even when circumstances look otherwise. But that’s where the elements of quietness and trust come in as we wait on him.

I’m excited about “eating” a promise from God’s New Year’s banquet table, and I don’t doubt it’ll be more scrumptious than even a McDonald’s burger and fries.

“Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner.” (Exodus 17:15)

11 thoughts on “Banquet on New Year’s Day”

  1. Thanks Margaret. I so enjoy your blog and the wisdom you share. God uses it in my life. I hope you have a wonderful New Year. I’m going to have to start mine with some french fries…soon. And I’m going to make Isa 30:15 my theme verse this year. 🙂

  2. Good Morning, Margaret – Our family drove past you twice this weekend on our way to see family in Chicago. I wish we could have stopped by – another time, perhaps.

    Your blog is a constance source of encouragement to me. We stopped at too many McDonald’s this weekend while traveling but it will now be a good reminder of Isa. 30:15.

    I looked up your verse in my new Message Bible and it says “Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me – the very thing you’ve been unwilling to do.” WOW! I am looking forward to reading your blog in 2012 and applying the lessons God lays on your heart to share with us.

    I hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas with the kids – God Bless you in 2012.

    Hugs from across the state,
    Judy

  5. Margaret I love it!!Like Judy, Is.30:15 and the golden arches will remind me as He has, that I need to “Be still and KNOW He is God, and I need to quieten my spirit and simply trust. In 2010 he gave me Ps. 46:10 and repeatedly He encourages me to rest in Him, and be QUIET…JUST TRUST!! He is my strength and daily I am encouraged by your blog. Thank you for sharing beautiful Word pictures through your experiences. You are a blessing!!

  6. Just wanted to thank you for your words of encouragement. Thanks for sharing and may God continue to Bless you richly. I too long to lean totally on him. What a mighty God we serve.

  7. Hi Margaret,
    I LOVE french fries- just about the worst thing you can eat, though, besides potato chips, something else I LOVE.
    It’s been years since I’ve been inspired to have before me a single verse for the year, but one jumped out at me in a Christmas devotional. Psalm 49:3- “my mouth speaks wisdom; my heart’s meditation brings understanding.” I am more hopeful that I will keep from bringing my thoughts in the flesh into a conversation, unfiltered by His Spirit and Word.
    Thanks for the banner over 2012, especially the Isaiah 30 passage- very sobering to think about the consequences of fleeing from rest and repentance.
    I have a brand new, spotless, white journal, given to me by a friend. A clean, bright, fresh slate to start the new year. I looked at the beginning and end of my Bible and saw that such opportunities are God’s idea.
    God established time, and a calendar- neither is a result of the fall. When I go to the beginning, before the fall, God established the lights to separate day and night, for signs and seasons, days and years. His post-flood promise was to continue seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.
    I thought one of the marks of eternity would be timelessness, but not so. While it will always be daytime, the tree of life will bear 12 kinds of fruit, one each month- which also tells me we will mark years as well as months.
    God keeps things fresh and hopeful, and gives us new beginnings- a chance to reflect, repent, resolve, renew. And when we mess up, His mercies are right there brand new every morning, no matter what failure we carried to bed. He is always making all things brand new. I am grateful for a new year, new possibilities, and most importantly that His banner flies over it and all of us.
    Happy New Year!
    Love,
    Terry

  8. 33 year ago that Isaiah 30:15 verse was spoken at our wedding ceremony: “In quietness and trust is your strength.”

  9. Your words of encouragement are always so very timely. Thank you for your faithfulness …and pray God’s triple abundant blessings in 2012 for you.