Looking Back, Looking Ahead

So, perhaps you are evaluating the year past, looking back reflectively, or looking forward wondering if 2019 will bring change or the same-old same-old.  If you are like me, you are hoping and anticipating some positive things ahead, things you have prayed about for years, looked forward to. The wait lengthens to see plans and purposes come to fruition, yet you trust a Sovereign God to work and move in His perfect time.  The transition has begun, but there seem to be some pauses on the path.

It’s easy to get impatient in the pauses, to begin fretting when things don’t seem to be moving along. Or maybe 2018 brought drastic changes and you’ve not even begun to deal with them yet in all the many emotions and challenges. We experienced that as well.  Life can change on a dime as the saying goes. And then even the dime disappears.

I am encouraged today as I go the Scripture; it quiets my heart as it always does.  As I move into a new year, eager to possess all that waits me, yet considering all the uncertainties, I am promised that the Lord God cares for all of it and He is already there.  

“But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” Deuteronomy 11:11-12

As the children of Israel stood on the threshold of entering into their long promised home, they were reminded that this was a land God cared for. It was His, gifted to them.  He nourished it with rains from heaven and kept a watchful eye over it always, “from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” Replace that word “land” with the words “new year”, and consider the parallel.  A land of opportunity and possibilities lay before the children of Israel. A year of opportunity and possibilities lies before us. God had personally and directly led them to where they were at this point in their lives.  So it is with us, He has brought us through the years, leading, guiding, providing. The New Year will no doubt be full of hills and valleys as well...ups and downs inevitable in this life. But grab hold of the amazing assurance of God’s care for your future.  From the beginning of the year to the end, our faithful God has His eyes on us and whatever will take place in this year. We don’t know, can’t know what this next year will bring, but it is comforting to be able to rest with confidence in the fact that Jesus knows. We don’t face it alone.  And it will be good because God is good and does only good for His own. Move with me into the new year with hope, faith, joy, and a peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) because God’s got this.

“Pray, hope, don’t worry!” ---Saint Padre Pio.

Happy New Year!