Welcome, 2021!

 

Happy New Year, everyone! And so, 2021 begins. I know there is a lot of relief as we wave goodbye to the infamous 2020, but in my quiet time yesterday, I was challenged with a different viewpoint. 

As I sat and contemplated over the last 12 months, it has, as well as for many others, been dotted with grief, challenges, unspoken pain, and difficulties never before experienced, but right alongside the challenges, I have experienced some of the greatest blessings in my life. Tears gathered in my eyes as I reflected back on all the ways the Lord showed Himself strong in my life this year. 

There are so many scriptures that could describe my 2020 year. Scriptures like Isaiah 46:4 "...I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." Psalm 55:22 "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee..." Psalm 34:10 "The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." and Isaiah 58:11 "And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought...".  As I contemplate over the past year, I see such a testimony of God's faithfulness, and the strongest truth I finished the year with was that Jesus satisfies everything. 

He has promised to satisfy the heart, my heart. He promised to satiate the weary soul, and replenish every sorrowful soul (Jeremiah 31:14, 25), and He has kept His promises. When I have strayed, He has called me back to Himself. When I have repented, He has forgiven freely and completely. When I have attempted to find other things to fulfill the longings of my heart, He has allowed me to find them utterly futile and has welcomed me back when my heart returned to Him. 

It has been a good year. There are scars I carry from 2020 and the challenges don't all disappear with the changing of a calendar, but I am so blessed. I am closer to Jesus than ever before. I have hope in the calling I have been given (Ephesians 1:17-20) and am secure in the everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27). 

My closing encouragement is to seek out, and document the accounts of the Lord's faithfulness in your life throughout 2020 rather than focusing on the negative. We all walk away from 2020 with bright hopes for 2021, but our God has not changed. He was the same in 2020 as He is as we being a new year and He has been so faithful. Renew your mind in the testimonies of Jesus Christ.  

May you be blessed.