Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Here we are--first day of a brand new year, just waiting to unfold.  A time when many people plan and dream about how things will be better in the new year than it was in the past year.  A time for hope.  A time for promise.

But what happens when the new year starts looking suspiciously like the old year?  Things happen to us that we have no control over--no way to stop.  We lost my father-in-law in the year 2013.  I didn't want that to happen, but it did.  We lost my beautiful mother-in-law in the year 2012.  I didn't want that to happen either, but it did.  Sometimes the year is hard. . .

But in spite of what "may" happen, we do not have to face the future alone.  You have probably heard the expression that goes like this:  "We do not know what the future holds, but we do know Who holds the future."  We never have to go through any trials alone.

A new year at our house brings several new calendars which are posted in different rooms.  As my daughter unwrapped her new calendar to place it on the nail in her room last night, there was a sheet of cardboard that was wrapped up with the calendar--the purpose of which was to keep it from bending as it was being displayed in the store.  Nothing unusual about that.  But what caught my husband's eye as he helped her unwrap the calendar was that there was something printed on this piece of cardboard.  Her calendar was from the DaySpring company, and printed on this piece of cardboard was a message from the DaySpring co-founder, Roy Lessin.  My husband and I both loved this message, so I thought I would share it with you here:

"Just think,
you're here not by chance,
but by God's choosing.
His hand formed you
and made you
the person you are.
He compares you to no one else--
you are one of a kind.
You lack nothing
that His grace can't give you.
He has allowed you to be here
at this time in history
to fulfill His special purpose
for this generation."

And then they had printed this Bible verse:
"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven."  Ecclesiastes 3:1

Isn't that a thoughtful message to find in your calendar?

Then I wanted to share my favorite quote from a book.  This is a short little quote, but it has brought such power and comfort into my life--especially during hard times:

"We have nothing to fear for the future except as we forget how God has led us in our past."  E.G.White, Life Sketches, p. 196

Just one little sentence, and even it could be boiled down even further--we have nothing to fear.  Nothing.  Why?  Because God is with us.  No fear--because God.

And then just this morning in my reading I ran across this Bible verse:

“Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;” Psalm 46:2

I think I am seeing a theme here--a theme of no fear.  Of facing the new year unafraid, because God is with us.  Of knowing I am right where my Creator wants me.  Will there be hard times in the year to come?  Probably--because I live in a world of sin.  But more important than that, my God will be right beside me.  Which makes all the difference.

And my year will be like this:

Happy New Year to you!  And may you walk ever closer with your beautiful Savior! 

~Susan