New Year’s Eve (December 31)

Listen to me, you people who pursue righteousness,

you people who seek the LORD!

Look confidently to the rock from which you were hewn

and to the quarry from which you were cut.

²Look confidently to Abraham your father,

and to Sarah, who gave birth to you.

Yes, when I called him, Abraham was only one person,

but I blessed him and multiplied him.

³The LORD is certain to comfort Zion.

He will comfort all her ruins.

Certainly he will make her wilderness like Eden

and her wasteland like the garden of the LORD.

Joy and gladness will be found in her,

thanksgiving and the sound of music.

⁴Pay attention to me, O my people.

My nation, listen to me!

For the law will go out from me,

and I will establish my justice as a light to the peoples.

⁵My righteousness is near.

My salvation goes forth,

and my arms will bring justice to the peoples.

The seacoasts will wait for me.

They will have confidence in my arm.

⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens.

Look closely at the earth beneath,

because the heavens will vanish like smoke,

and the earth will wear out like a garment,

and its inhabitants will die like gnats.

But my salvation will remain forever,

and my righteousness will never be abolished.

²²Since you have purified your souls by obeying the truth, resulting in sincere brotherly love, love one another constantly from a pure heart. ²³For you have been born again, not from perishable seed but from imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴For:

All flesh is like grass,

and all its glory is like a flower of the field.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

²⁵but the word of the Lord endures forever.

And this is the word that was preached to you.

⁶He told them this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it, but he did not find any. ⁷So he said to the gardener, ‘Look, for three years now I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and I have found none. Cut it down. Why even let it use up the soil?’ ⁸But the gardener replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it. ⁹If it produces fruit next year, fine. But if not, then cut it down.’”