Friday, December 27, 2013

The New Year is Full of God's Hope


Nothing left under our tree but some loose dry needles. Since we got a live tree again this year it looks like we’re going to have to dispose of it pretty quickly.  Just a month ago it was green and the needles were supple. Freshly cut from the earth, it was gorgeous. Now it’s about done in. We can’t keep it over for another year. Without roots and soil and water it won’t make it. The evidence is there already. It’s done for.
This year has flown by. Just yesterday 2013 came upon us with such promise. If you’re like us, there were some great things that happened this year.  And if you’re like us, there were some not so great and unexpected things that happened.  When you open up a new year it holds lots of wonderful plans and hopes and dreams. But you can’t carry that calendar over for another year either. Everything written in it is done. That’s the past. It too must be thrown out with the Christmas tree.

We cannot do one thing about bringing a dead tree back to life.  We can’t do a thing about repurposing a calendar for another year. We can’t do anything about the outcome of the months we’ve spent in our lives.  Even though the tree has died, the year has dwindled and our plans have come and gone, not to be seen again, we can keep the good things for future reference. We can also look to the not so good events as our record of overcoming the odds, staying the course and celebrating the victories. We can pack away the ornaments from the boughs to place them on the new tree, we can catalog those good times, those precious moments to fondly remember in our hearts and we can open up a new calendar with high hopes and bright purpose.

I have a bad habit of keeping broken ornaments. I don’t know why. But God speaks to my heart and tells me to throw out the broken. Discard the past. I cannot relive it. I cannot bring it back to life. I cannot revive the year. It’s been spent. Whether I spent it right or misspent any of it is of no concern now.  God says look to the future.  Even the good things - and there are always good memories, great moments and fond reminiscences – have to be put in their place. We cannot live tomorrow fully if we’re holding onto the used up yesterdays. It just can’t be done.

Oh beloved, rejoice! A new year is approaching.  In a few short days it will be 2014 and the calendars will be brought out with clean spaces signifying the clean slate God gives you each and every day. For you who are dealing with loss, God says this could be the year of redemption, regeneration and renewal. For you who are walking through dark hours, this new year holds lots of hope for better days of health and happiness.  For all of you, it is time to throw out the old and take in the new. It’s a new day. It’s a great time to ask God to give you fresh plans and renewed purpose.

Regardless of your age, your abilities, your education or your pocketbook, God wants you.  He wants to take you into newness of life with Him. He wants you to believe Him. To receive His promises and to live in the light of His Word like never before. It’s a new day God has given you today and it’s a new year ahead to live it with gusto and victory. Your life is full of significance because God loves you and He’s for you!  No man can pronounce you done for. No system can pronounce you obsolete. No religion can say you’re not good enough. Because God says behold I AM doing a new thing with you beloved!

Blessings to you as you seek Him with all your heart for that's where we truly live and move and have our being whether it’s the end of a year or the beginning, He’s with you all the way.

Hebrews 6:18-19 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil…

Acts17:28  For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring. KJV

Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.

I Timothy 4:10 With a view to this we toil and strive, [yes and] suffer reproach, because we have [fixed our] hope on the living God, Who is the Savior (Preserver, Maintainer, Deliverer) of all men, especially of those who believe (trust in, rely on, and adhere to Him). Amplified


Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

No comments: