A Marvelous Provision
1 Have you received your copy of the 1972 Yearbook as yet? It is made up in a new style this year. We believe that once you pick it up and begin reading you will not want to stop until you have completed everything up to the section containing the daily texts. How faith-strengthening and how heartwarming are the accounts of the wonderful ways in which Jehovah is using modern day men and women of faith. In the lives of faithful servants of Jehovah, both past and present, we can see our brothers overcoming the very same problems and obstacles that confront us. Does not this make us even more determined to press on faithfully in Jehovah’s service? (1 Cor. 10:13) Truly, each Yearbook is another marvelous provision from Jehovah for the comfort and encouragement of his servants.
2 But is the Yearbook encouraging only to Jehovah’s witnesses? By no means! In fact, many Bible students have been greatly strengthened by it. Those publishers who make it a habit to see that all of their Bible students get a copy have found that it helps them to make more rapid progress in developing appreciation for Jehovah’s visible organization. Why not take a copy along to each Bible student and show him all its features, including the daily texts and comments? Explain the benefits of considering the Scripture text and Watchtower comment for each day. Reading with your Bible student from the “Lamp” book, pages 67-69, which highlights the benefits of personal and family study, will undoubtedly help him to appreciate the value of this provision. When it is used daily, it helps one to grow in appreciation for the wisdom in Jehovah’s Word. As the information is thoughtfully considered and applied throughout the day, such application contributes greatly toward building Christian personalities.
3 When honest-hearted ones read the Yearbook they cannot help but be greatly impressed by the fact that the ministry is carried on in the same way as in the first century C.E. They will also observe the many evidences that Jehovah is directing this work and how he is richly blessing his people today.
4 The Yearbook is also of great value in aiding interested ones to appreciate the field ministry and the part they can have in it. You may want to explain that activity in the field ministry is reported to the local congregation and then to the branch, and finally to the Society’s headquarters. If Bible students have progressed to the point where they are qualified to participate in field service, they can be shown how they may have the joy of contributing their part no matter how insignificant it may seem to them. It takes single grains of sand to make up the seashore and single drops of water to make up the mighty oceans. Help them to appreciate that during December they, too, can have a share in the tremendous witness being given throughout the earth by Jehovah’s faithful servants.