February 1, 2019 – Joshua 3:4-5

You have never been this way before.… Consecrate yourselves. Joshua 3:4-5

When the New Year steps up to greet us, it evokes a certain response within the heart.² We have reached an end that is also a beginning. Behind us is a common journey, before us an untrodden way. What, then, does this old story give us to hearten and guide us as we cross the threshold of the year?

We must sanctify ourselves. What that means is gathered from the words of Jesus: “For them I sanctify myself” (John 17:19). Facing the untrodden way, we are to dedicate ourselves again to God. We are to give ourselves to the duties of our calling with a fresh and unreserved surrender—no matter what our calling. The wonders of tomorrow depend on the sanctification of today—a new surrender here and now is the prelude to a wonderful experience, which ought to be borne in mind by those who are growing weary of their work and dreading the prospect of another year. The enthusiasm of youth may have departed, the strength we once enjoyed may have been weakened, the freshness may have been rubbed off things through the ceaseless handling of the years. But if, here and now, facing the unknown in our Lord’s fashion we sanctify ourselves, tomorrow will be more wonderful than yesterday.

Israel sent on ahead the ark of God. It was the sign and symbol that the Lord was with them, and they sent it on ahead into the swollen river. In spite of the express command of Jesus, how we send our imaginings ahead! How we toss ourselves into a fever over the fears of the untrodden way! Fear is a poor hand at finding a place to wade across. Fear is a sorry bridge-builder. Fear drowns the music of today. It hears nothing but the rushing of the river. But Israel sent on the ark of God, and that made all the difference. With a fresh surrender of ourselves, with spirits receptive and responsive, with a conviction that God is ahead, ordering everything in perfect love, let us go forward with the banners flying, to the high adventure of another year, for we have not come this way before.

—George H. Morrison

² George H. Morrison, “The Untrodden Way,” in Highways of the Heart (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1926; reprint, Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1994), 17–19.

 Wallis, Diana. Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church’s Great Preachers. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2001. Print.