Happy New Year Fasts to Happy Festivals

Happy New Year

Fasts to Happy Festivals 

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: "The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace."”

God wants His people to be “happy” and to celebrate

For those who trust in the Lord

They will find sorrow may come in the night

But joy comes in the morning

LOOK FORWARD TO THE MORNING!

Zechariah was a prophet of hope.

The people of God were in exile and God

was bringing them back to Jerusalem.

For years they mourned and fasted on the

fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months.

Zechariah speaks a series of…

 “This is what the Lord Almighty says”

Each one of these messages was to encourage God’s people.

It is hard for us to image what is going on in the Middle East.

War is displacing people, their homes

and businesses are being destroyed.

Many of the people are taken to safe havens,

 a camp where their freedom is greatly restricted.

The loss and sadness leaves people feeling hopeless.

Mourning and fasting is all they want to do.

There is nothing to look forward to

for themselves and their children.

I think all of us have had those seasons in

our lives where hope was gone and all we

felt like doing was morning and fasting.

Maybe this is why Zechariah 8:19

becomes so important to us… 

“This is what the Lord Almighty says:

 "The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and

tenth months will become joyful and glad

 occasions and happy festivals for Judah.”

God speaks words of hope to them.

Imagine how hard it must have been

for them to receive these words of hope.

When you suffer the losses these people had,

 you are not sure you want to get your hopes up

again because the pain of loss is too great.

But for the people of God, we should

never lose hope, we should never give up.

 

Our fasting and mourning is not an end,

 it is a means to hope and deliverance.

We should never let our sorrow leave us hopeless.

 

Our God wants to turn our fasting and mourning into

 “joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals”.

God wants His people to be “happy” and to celebrate.

For those who trust in the Lord they will find sorrow

may come in the night but joy comes in the morning.

LOOK FORWARD TO THE MORNING!

If we have destroyed our life with wrong discussions,

His mercies are new every morning.

God tells Zechariah to prophesy to the people…

 Get ready!

 Have hope in the Lord and while you are waiting

“love truth and peace."

The New Year brings hope to those who love truth and peace.

This is the action plan for the New Year.

Let God be true.

 Let His Word guide you.

Be at peace, as well as, be a peacemaker.

 

 

Scripture Reading

Zechariah 8:18-19 NIV

18 Again the word of the Lord Almighty came to me. 19 This is what the Lord Almighty says: "The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace."

Psalm 30:5 NIV

5 For his anger lasts only a moment,

but his favor lasts a lifetime;

weeping may remain for a night,

but rejoicing comes in the morning.