Thank God For A New Year!

Happy New Year Friends!

Thank God for another year, for 2019 wasn't promised to us, but God saw fit to keep us here and gave us the opportunity to see 2020 and for that - I am most grateful.

Is it just me who feels as though time has sped up?? Of course, I know that it hasn't, but time is constantly moving, so we must use it wisely and not take it for granted. Today, I just want to reflect on a few things we talked about in 2019.

My daughter tells me all the time how we need to let Jesus take the wheel, so as we talked about last year, let's be mindful to continue to trust in and lean on Him. We already know that we don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future! I'm sure that each of us probably came into 2020 with a lot of concerns - whether that be financial, health, or career-related - but let's not magnify these concerns. Instead, let's stand on our faith and magnify the One who can change and fix them. When those worries and concerns get too heavy for us, let's trust in God. He might not put the fire out, but if He doesn't, we can be assured that He will get into the fire with us.

Friends, remember to pray without ceasing as the Word tells us that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passion as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain" (James 5:16-18). Did you catch that? God withheld the rain for THREE and a HALF YEARS based on Elias' prayer! And when he prayed again, God allowed the heavens to open and the rain to fall again. How powerful is that?! Equally as powerful is the knowledge that the Lord will do awesomely, amazing things for us, just as he did for Elias. All we have to do is - we must have faith in our prayers and trust and believe in God and He will be faithful to answer.

Let's also remember to rest in the Lord, for there is nothing like being one of His - just a sheep in the pasture, we don't have to worry about providing the way or about what's going to happen tomorrow, we can just turn it all over to the Lord and rest as we walk along with Him.

As we trust, pray, and rest in the Lord in 2020, my prayer for each of us is that He will allow us to experience His peace in an abundant way - which is much more wonderful than the human mind can understand or even imagine. His peace will keep our thoughts and our hearts quiet and at rest as we pray and trust in Christ Jesus!

With all that said, let the Church say Amen and... AMEN!