The start of a new year, for many, brings new resolutions, a search for purpose, and a deeper desire for joy and peace. Billy Graham often talked about the true source of purpose, joy, and peace: the Lord Jesus Christ.  As we continue to celebrate the beginning of a new year and decade, take a moment to read 10 quotes from Billy Graham about the New Year.

“People by nature build, tear down, and rebuild. We build our hopes, get disappointed, and then search for renewed hope. That is why we are fond of New Year’s resolutions… Faith in God calls for building from the inside out. There is no sense in working on the outside if the inside is rotten.”

“God has given us a message that is not only for past times and this time, but for all time.”

“A new year is only a mark of time, a turning of the page. Mankind was not established on earth just to be preoccupied with self, our own problems and pleasures… If this is all there is to life, then it truly is ‘meaningless’ (Ecclesiastes 1:14, NIV). Man was not made for himself, but for God. The Great Designer planned that we would know Him forever.”

“Why are people so restless? Why are people constantly searching for lasting peace and contentment yet never fully satisfied? Many people express this particularly when a new year approaches… The Bible says this happens for a very good reason: We are incomplete without God. If we leave Him out of our lives, we have an empty place in our souls, a yearning deep inside us that only God can satisfy.”

“Start the new year off with a sure thing—God’s promise to give you a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).”

“The most important resolution you can make as another year approaches is this: to open your heart and life to Jesus Christ, and commit your life to Him. Don’t waste your time on resolutions that don’t ultimately matter; resolve instead to live for Christ.”

“It’s really wonderful to enter the new year with Jesus Christ… all through the year to be going along with Christ and have Christ going along with you. No matter what the problems, many of them uncertain, many mysteries out there in the future, but Christ is with you. Whether we know the future or not, we know the one who holds the future.”

“Life is short; none of us knows how long we have. Live each day as if it were your last – for someday it will be.”

“God nowhere promises happiness is to be a goal in life. It’s not a goal. Our goal is to obey God. Our goal is to do the will of God. Our goal is to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“If you sense a longing for God, a desire to change and be a new person, that’s God speaking to your heart. And as you respond, He will give you the ability and the power to change because He has to do the changing.”

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