Happy New Year!

2013. I can hardly believe another year has found its place in history. Do you ever notice how differently those 365 days can pass? At times, they seem to fly by, like when you blink and suddenly realize summer’s over. Other days—harder days—just drag on.

Perhaps you’re in the midst of some difficult days. Maybe you can find no reason to celebrate the coming of another year; you expect it will look much like the last one. After all, resolutions don’t really have the power to change anything. They just offer another opportunity to fail.

Take heart, dear one. When we have Jesus, we always have hope. Consider these words of the Lord, and open your heart to receive them as your own.

This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters,  . . . “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 desert and streams in the wasteland.” 

Isaiah 43:16, 18-19

Christ desires to do a fresh work in your life, and He specializes in making a way when there seems to be no way. He never wastes our pain, but unfortunately, we often do. We get so lost in the misery of our circumstances that we neglect to follow Him through to the victory.

Jesus wants to lead you to resurrection life. Will you believe His promise that He works all things together for your good and His glory (Romans 8:28)? Would you trust that whatever He’s allowed in your life was designed to work glory in you?

Let’s join Jesus in laying down our own goals for this New Year and picking up His. Let’s commit to trust Him through our difficulties, drawing near to Him in surrender so that we can exchange our ashes for beauty, darkness for light, and our mourning for praise (Isaiah 61:1-3).

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

2 Corinthians 5:17

May 2013 truly become your year of transformation. Blessings in the mighty Name of Jesus!