New Year, New Beginning, Renewed Hope

You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.  Psalm 65:11

“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day [year!] with no mistakes in it yet?" Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery

Oh my goodness, I'm so excited!  New Year is almost upon us.  I love the hope, the plans!  It might not work out but each year, each day, each moment is a new beginning in Christ.  His grace is eternal, His love unrelenting, and our hope in Him never ceases.

This year has been a hard year in so many ways, and yet as I look back I have learned so much and grown so much.  Let me not look back with regret, but thank God carrying me through it all and to look forward to tomorrow.  I'll make LOADS of mistakes! I know I will. But I must believe HIM, concentrate on God's Word which strengthens our hearts and minds to pick ourselves up and move forward.

My family and I have suffered as we picked ourselves up from the deceptions of our old church.  But the suffering has refined us and burnt off some of the dross that we carried.  More dross to be burnt off, that's sure, but He will carry us through it, He will bless us, He will love us, these things are sure.

FOR MY HOPES AND DREAMS:

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Phil 4:13

…but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.  Isaiah 40:31

May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.  Psalm 20:4

MY PLANS MAY FAIL, BUT GOD'S PLANS PREVAIL - MAY I DO THE GOOD HE WILLS: 

Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. James 4:13-17

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9

FOR WHAT WE HAVE PLANNED, GOD'S PLANS WILL EXCEED ALL WE COULD EVER HAVE DREAMED OF:

Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed.  For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.  Habakkuk 1:5

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Jeremiah 29:11

MAY I SERVE FOR HIS SAKE, NOT TO IMPRESS ANYONE:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

TIME IS SHORT, LET'S LIVE LIFE WITH PURPOSE:

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.  Psalm 90:12

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. – Ecclesiastes 3:1

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.  Isaiah 43:18-19

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:13-14

GOD WORKS THROUGH JESUS TO MAKE ALL THINGS NEW:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”  2 Corinthians 5:17

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  1 Peter 1:3

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”  Lamentations 3: 22-24

 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.   And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.   Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”  Ezekiel 36:26-28

WE ARE ETERNAL IN CHRIST. WE ARE MADE BEAUTIFUL IN HIM:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”  Ecclesiastes 3:11

MAY I ALWAYS SING HIS PRAISE IN THIS NEW YEAR:

Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.  Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.  Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. Psalm 96: 1-3

Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.  Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,…  1 Chronicles 16:11-12