Tag: New Year

Resolved

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     Tonight, as I reflect on this past year with each of its highs and lows, each joy and sorrow experienced, and yes each pain and each delight; my heart is determined and even resolved to move from 2014 into 2015 with great expectation! Maybe my scripture verse for this next year will be…“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. (‭Isaiah‬ ‭43‬:‭18-19‬ NIV)

     Some would ask why forget? Well first of all, you can not truly experience the highs, joys and delights in life to the full unless you have also experienced lesser things that are dull, less exciting and perhaps even painful. Perhaps an example is called for here. My husband loves banana pudding, you know the homemade kind from scratch. So, about 2-3 times a year I will make him one and I believe He could eat the entire pudding if others were not around. Now, suppose I decided to make it weekly or even daily. After a time, no longer would it be an anticipated treat. Eventually, it would get old and at some point in time, I’m willing to bet it might actually become a chore to even think about spooning another bite into his mouth. There is much to be said for anticipation and only enjoying this delicious treat a few times a year builds anticipation and enhances the enjoyment. It prevents it from becoming commonplace and just another dull recipe that is over done and under appreciated.   

     Secondly, we are human and let’s be honest; many of us tend to spend too much time rehearsing and focusing on the negative and painful rather than the positive and joyful. This can lead us to places that are not good for us or beneficial to us therefore in many cases it just doesn’t prove in our best interest to remember the past. Focusing too much on the past can also distort our vision of the present and future. It can quench our hope and give fuel to any doubts we may have. Hopefully you’ve never experienced going through such a rough patch in life that you have wondered if this is all there is or if it is even possible that life will ever be any different. Yet many times it is during times such as these that God displays His goodness, faithfulness, grace and love in our lives. Not because He is not needed all the time in our lives but because we tend not to see our need for Him in the good times. 

     Unresolved issues with the past can also rob us of much future joy. It can cause us to not trust others and even not trust ourselves.  It can keep us at arms length from those we may care the most about; it can cause us to build walls of protection that over time can become chambers of isolation that seek to imprison us. 

     So today, on the cusp of a New Year I am resolved to not dwell on the past. I am resolved to remember His goodness, His faithfulness, His mercy and His grace. I am resolved to remember the times He has ran to my rescue in times of trouble or pain and remember the delights I have experienced in my relationship with Him. I am resolved to Let it Go where lesser things are concerned and focus once again on 2015 and the years to come with expectation. I am resolved to be alert to His movement in my life; to choose life and blessing;to choose love and forgiveness; to choose mercy and grace! Will I succeed or fail? Yes, for I am human. The past will try to sneak up on us and sneak in to remind us of it’s presence but there is a greater Presence and in Him we can be more than overcomers! 

Goodbye, 2014! Hello, 2015!!

Have a Happy and Blessed 2015! 

 May it be filled with grace and peace!!

 

 

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (‭Isaiah‬ ‭43‬:‭2-3‬ NIV)

 

 

Resolved- Adjective- firm in purpose or intent; determined. Verb-to come to an ernest decision about; determine to do something; to settle, determine, or state in a formal vote or formal expression of opinion or intention, as of a deliberative assembly; to deal with (a question, a matter of uncertainty, etc.) conclusively; settle; solve:to resolve the question before the board. (Dictionary.com)

Fresh Start

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New Year’s Eve at our home last night was a simple, quiet yet beautiful experience. My husband and I enjoyed a slow paced evening with some great music from WinterFest, followed by their countdown to welcome in 2014. We shared a New Year’s kiss and a toast with some delicious Sparkling Peach grape juice followed with a time of Communion and dedication of our year to The Lord. It was simple, yet perhaps one of the best since that very first New Year’s Eve we spent together with our families and their friends that resulted in our first date. We were mere kids that night long ago and yet we have shared every one since.

Life has a way of moving on, speeding by. Unlike when I was a child and a week seemed like a month, today a week seems more like a day! So with that in mind, about a month ago I began doing some thinking and praying about the year, 2014… What would it hold? What do I want to accomplish? Perhaps the most important question – What are Your goals and plans for me this year, Lord? Is there a verse for me for 2014? Maybe a word or theme. Little by little I felt him guiding me. The first glimpse came when I “happened” across a scripture verse in Habakkuk. It resonated down to my core.

I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint(question). (Habakkuk 2:1 NLT)

A little more time passed, a few more days, and I ‘stumbled’ over someone teaching on healing and speaking about the meaning of dunamis. Already somewhat familiar in that it speaks of the power of God including the power to perform miracles and we get our word dynamite from this Greek word, then I heard and additional meaning. I, being unfamiliar and therefore skeptical, decided I must check out what was said. After checking several reliable sources, it is true. Dunamis not only means the power of God, might, power to perform miracles, strength; it is used to mean moral power and excellence of soul. This brought my mind back to Habakkuk from my reading a few days ago. Habakkuk 3:2 says “Lord, I have heard the report about You; Lord, I stand in awe of Your deeds. Revive Your work in these years; make it known in these years. In Your wrath remember mercy! (Habakkuk 3:2 HCSB)

A little later while reading the Word, Isaiah 43 was my passage. Here God’s word to his people is, ” Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. The animals of the field will honor Me, jackals and ostriches, because I provide water in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people. The people I formed for Myself will declare My praise. (Isaiah 43:18-21 HCSB)
Next came:
Isaiah 54:2 “Enlarge the site of your tent, and let your tent curtains be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your ropes, and drive your pegs deep. 3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations and inhabit the desolate cities.”

You may, like me, be asking by now “what does all this mean?” Or “where is it going.” I can honestly answer I don’t know, not even a guess. What I do know is I am both excited and expectant to see what unfolds in 2014. I can not wait to see if and how any of this plays into the coming events. Will as NASSA predicts there be four Blood Moons over the next two years. The Word of God also speaks of the sun darkening and the moon looking like blood. What will happen with Israel? The Middle East? Is God doing something new? Will God’s power be more apparent than ever before? I have no answers, only anticipation and expectancy over what the next 364 days will hold.

Wishing you each a very blessed 2014 as I climb up to my watchtower and stand my guard post. There I will wait and see what The Lord says and how He will answer!

Leaving the Old Behind; Pressing Forward

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I am betting there are few of us who have not experienced a hard year; one to which we are ready to bid an eager good-bye. Other years we close reluctantly because it was a year full of mountaintop highs. Then there are those ‘normal’ years where life was average with only a few swings in either direction. No matter what our experience in 2013 has been, time marches forward. Now that we are of the cusp of a new year, I can not help but be a little excited and filled with wonder at the possibilities which might manifest in 2014. I find myself looking at a blank canvas, where will I begin? What do I want to make of it? Will I color in the lines others have drawn for me or that I have drawn in past years? Will I retrace the same comfortable image of past years? You know the ones practiced and repeated over and over because it is easy and comfortable, familiar.

Perhaps this is the year…is it possible? The canvas will be fresh, clean, new…dare I? What would it look like to live this coming year wide open, fully engaged moment by moment, authentically, fully focused on what is important without worrying or complaining and holding nothing back? How about a year of only speaking life and blessing over those around me and releasing every word that is not life and blessing that I am tempted to speak or that is spoken over me rather than letting it play on a loop in my mind? While I am dreaming, maybe I could take all my concerns, fears, worries, disappointments, hurts from the careless words that slip from someone I love immediately to my Father, who can handle them appropriately and is the only One who can truly do anything about them. What will this upcoming years canvas look like? How will fit together in the puzzle that is the mosaic of my life?

Will I take a moment to seek a scripture verse for the year and listen for Him to lead me to it? Will God in His sovereignty give me a word for the year that is to be my focus for 2014? Will I immediately understand it’s meaning? Or will understanding unfold as the year progresses? Perhaps the word given will resonate immediately and gradually unfold over the year to have a much deeper meaning than I ever would have imagined! As 2014 approaches and is already right here knocking at the door, I have many more questions, many hopes and dreams and much anticipation!! Yes, I am ready to leave behind 2013 and begin a new and exciting year; a new adventure. With me I will take all the memories of this year, I will treasure all the wonderful and wonder-filled memories and all the rest I will do my best to learn from them, let them go and move forward stronger for them.

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My prayer as we enter this New Year is that we will find ourselves fully alive, fully engaged in life drawing closer to our Creator, Our God; that we find balance between our being and our doing, after all we are human beings. We often live at an impossible pace and when we do we loose our peace, sacrifice our health and relationships, and carry more stress than was ever intended for us to bare.
I pray we choose life and blessing for ourselves and encourage all around us to do the same.

3 John 1:2 (NIV) Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically just as you are spiritually.

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Hebrews 12 (HCSB) 12 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.