Hope In The New Year

Resolutions. Have you made yours yet? The start of the new year is upon us and most people are giving thought to what they want to do differently in the new year. Whether it is to lose weight, get a new job, conquer a fear, buy a new house, start a family, start a journal, whatever it is, these resolutions all have one thing in common. Hope. With each resolution, there is a theme of expectation or a desire for something to happen. We are all constantly looking for a hope that not only gives what we desire, but that will last. The problem is that when we tie hope to earthly bound things, they typically do not pan out the way we want them to. When our hopes slip through our fingers, we search for and grab hold of another with the speed of a racehorse on race day.

As we head into this new year, may I suggest taking a look back over the year and give some thought as to what God has been trying to complete in your life? Remember that when God created you, he did so with purpose. Since God is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, he is all about completing what he starts. The only way that you will not see this completion in you is if you downright refuse and reject Christ. He will not force you to receive all that he has for you, but he has diligently worked to get you to open the door to the possibilities that he has laid before you. I was one that always set new resolutions for the new year. Most of them lasted maybe a week or a month at best because inevitably, life got in the way. When my kids became adults and left the nest, I struggled with what my purpose in life was supposed to be. Year after year I made new resolutions, trying to find this purpose in life. This last year, I decided to say “yes” to whatever tasks God was placing before me and when I opened that door to Him, boy did he ever take off with it. I will admit that some of what He was asking me to do was well outside my comfort zone, but because he is all about completing what He set out to accomplish, He equipped me in every way to do what he set before me. It has been amazing and fulfilling and rewarding and just plain joyful to allow God to do the work in and through me that He has always wanted to do.