Wayne Weekly “Wring out the Old Year…Wring in the New!”
Written by Teddy on December 30, 2015
A number of years ago while at school at Moody in Chicago, I was introduced to Benny Hester music. Benny joined the ranks of my listening habits along with Keith Green and Phil Keaggy.
I recall one song that communicated just how God molds us and conforms us to His image throughout our Christian lives often by putting us through the wringer. The song was called, “Squeeze You”. Here is the chorus:
He’s gonna squeeze you
Just because He loves you
And you’ll know Him better
For the trials he brings you through
He’s gonna squeeze you
And you’ll learn to trust Him
He wants you to be faithful and true
2016 could bring on some new challenges. God often sends fiery ordeals into our lives to “squeeze us” into a Jesus likeness template. Those ordeals are for our good no matter how uncomfortable or how painful. They do bring blessing because we get to know the Lord better through the wringer of life. We experience more of His grace, more of His mercy, more of Him…period. And through it all, we are comforted so as to be able to comfort others.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3,4
Here we are at the dawn of a New Year. Not to put a damper on things, but the changing of years is just a way we measure time in conjunction with the revolution of the earth around the sun. Twelve midnight in 2015 doesn’t magically begin a new lease on life at a nanosecond after 12, but it does allow us a starting point to make new resolutions. It can mark some kind of new beginning for commitment to Christ.d
So know that the “wringing” we experience in the New Year may not always be joyful in the moment, but we can rest assure, that afterwards “it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness”. Hebrews 12:11
Wring out the old, wring in the new! Have a blessed 2016.
