Today, Thursday at midnight, billions of people will celebrate the incoming new year, 2021. 2020 seems like a bad movie that you watched as a kid and those bad scenes just keep popping up in your head. 2020 also feels like it lasted 11 months, thirty-one days, and thirteen years!  “COVID time” (all the lock downs, shutdowns, and quarantine) has seemingly erased the memories of anything good that may have happened in the beginning of 2020. Fears over what could happen and what was eventually going to happen concerning the pandemic, the political climate, and domestic and social issues, crippled the entire global community.

So, 2021 has got to be better than 2020, right?

“Time for a fresh start”, “let us make the world a better place”, “let’s make ourselves better people”, “It’s the magic of a New Year”, Slogans like these are an attempt, especially now, to encourage and convince those who have fearfully lived through 2020 that 2021 will be better than 2020 was.

But what happens at the stroke of midnight on December 31 that somehow magically makes things different? Can the promise of a new year calm fears, restore a broken relationship, provide a new start on life, or change the social and political climate? If so, then the entire world desperately needs that magic to happen now!

However, we all know that the answer to that question: nothing magically happens at all, nothing changes except the passing of time. Not to be a “Debbie Downer”, but the fears of 2020 will be the fears in 2021 and, there are new fears on the horizon that could make 2021 a more fearful year than 2020!

So as a believer, how on earth can I be happy during the new fears of 2021?

Here are three things to practice and meditate on to maintain your joy in the Lord during the new fears of 2021.

Foremost, it begins with knowing and resting in the fact that God is sovereign, this simply means that HE IS IN CONTROL. No matter what comes my way in 2021, I need to be assured that God has a good plan.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Secondly, since God is in control and has a good plan, then I need not fear what will come, or what will happen to me.

 In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Psalms 56:11)

Thirdly I must place all my trust in God alone, no matter what.

    When I am afraid,
    I put my trust in you.
      In God, whose word I praise,
    in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
    What can flesh do to me? (Psalm 56:3-4)

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. (Job 13:15)

To sum it all up, Jesus, who is God, knows what is coming. He knows what the new fears of 2021 will be. In His final hours with the apostles, Jesus recognized that they would be very fearful of the things that lay ahead of them as well. His words to them should be the very words that we resolve to hold on to in the new fears of 2021.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)