Happy New Year!
There is something beautiful about new beginnings, isn’t there? Fresh starts. Clean slates. A pivot from what was, to what’s next. There is something so comforting and encouraging about the NEW.
Many have been ready to leave 2020 behind and jump into a new year with gusto and good riddance to what was. This year I’m liking the thought of adding a new building block to the foundation that’s already existing. Not disregarding what was… but holding on to the good and what God’s taught me. Looking with excitement for where He’s taking me and what He’s going to teach me next, while choosing to breathe in each new day of my journey with gratitude.
Maybe this new year doesn’t have the ‘hitting the ground running’ feeling or the ‘keeping up with the Jones’’ kind of pace. Maybe this new season looks a whole lot like waiting on the Lord…still waiting. Taking each new day as a new gift to start again and build upon what He’s been teaching us. Because let’s face it, a new year doesn’t wipe the problems and heartaches away… we still live in a world subject to pain, brokenness, and disease. Racism and exclusion. A world conditioned by sin.
So what if we take our normal ‘new year’ energy, the passion and drive we use to accomplish new goals, and focus it all on God instead?
Maybe this New Year doesn’t have to be filled with a pile of resolutions that dwindle away after a few short weeks due to a lack of enthusiasm. But instead, we keep looking to God, trusting that when He said He’s making all things new, that that included us…. Trusting that He’ll reveal new revelations to us as we lean into Him. He’s the same God who is making all things new, in His time, in His ways… bringing revelation to us personally, just when we need it. Giving us eyes to see new hope. New mercies. New perspective. New gratitude. Giving us new rest. New joy. New breaths of His grace.
Maybe the only ‘new’ we truly need, are ‘new encounters’ in His presence. Resting in Him for however long He calls us to wait upon Him, until He instructs us to move. Letting Him steady the foundation that our lives are to be built on, in Him, and letting Him lead us to the areas where He desires for us to build for His Kingdoms sake. So that with each new day of this new year we trust Him under the shelter of His guidance.
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” – Psalm 91:1-2
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