New Year, New Hope, Fresh Start

 By: Joanne Viola

With the turn of a page, we find ourselves at the start of a new year.

A new year breathes new hope, a fresh start. It’s a blank page filled with possibilities. A new beginning.

The challenge with a new year, or a new beginning, is the uncertainty of where it will take one. We have no idea of what lies ahead.

I remember years ago hearing Stormie Omartian speak at a women’s conference. She said something to the effect that God gives us just enough light for the step we are on.

As we go through the coming year, we will move forward day by day, moment by moment. We begin to see where God is taking us as we walk with Him, step by step.

“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
(James 1:17, NASB)

Maybe last year did not turn out the way you had hoped. Perhaps it did not end on a celebratory high.

Yet here we find ourselves at a new beginning, so let’s go back to the beginning.

One of the enemy’s most used deceptions has been to try to convince us God is holding out on us. He tries to make us think that God doesn’t really love us, or care for us, or even hear us when we pray.

When he approached Eve in the garden, his tactic was to create doubt as to why God would not permit them to partake of the tree.

Yet James tells us differently.

James reminds us that every good thing we have been given in life is from our Father. Every gift received is perfect and given in love, for our good and for our benefit.

James also reminds us our Father, God, does not change. As a matter of fact, God cannot change. We have an unchanging God. He is … forever faithful, forever true.

Let’s start this new year,
this new beginning reminding ourselves
of our unchanging, faithful, and good God.

 

Reflection:
What will you do differently this year to remind yourself of the goodness and faithfulness of God?
Is there a promise you need to focus on?

 

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

from Woman to Woman
Umn ministry