A Year filled with Promise


So far this New Year feels much like the old one for me, since I am working. As I stared out through the windshield on my morning commute, grateful that there was almost nobody on the road (hey there's a blessing!) I thought about the New Year and what it means. I wonder how the year went so fast.....In my honest reflection, I had to admit that there are some circumstances that I do not feel positive about going into the New Year. But then I thought about the Big Picture. All the good surrounding me. Good friends, good family, and surrounding on every side are God's promises. When I think of everything He has brought me through how can I be anything but eternally grateful and also hopeful for what's ahead?
While we all wish each other a New Year full of  prosperity and blessings, we know that there will be things that happen that will stop us in our tracks, take the wind out of our sails, make us want to crawl through the wardrobe and find a secret world like the Narnia kids. Just today I heard of a dear blogger who lost her husband on Christmas Eve, and another who lost her home and everything in it and yet.....and yet.... she is grateful that they all escaped unharmed.

Sometimes you have to stare really hard through the fog of our circumstances to see the good that surrounds us. But it is getting easier for me to do this, I am happy to say. It is nothing that I have done, it's everything He's done and continues to do. This is not just looking on the bright side. What it is, is knowing, remembering, all those times before when I thought I couldn't...... and He said....Yes you can, I will help you. I have promised to never leave you and I never will....It is knowing who He is.

As I was thinking these things, He gave me one of those confirmations. As I was praying the song I needed to hear, Mighty to Save came on the radio, and right after that, Jesus Saves. He was telling me twice, not to worry.

God is in the outfield, and you are the fly ball, He says, "I got it!"
He is also across the chasm with His hands outstretched, saying "Jump, I've got you!"

Just like He grabbed Peter when he started to sink........Why did I ever doubt?

Isaiah 40:31 - but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Psalm 71:5 - For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth.
Romans 5:2 - through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Psalms 27:5 - For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.
Ephesians 3:20 - Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.....