Welcome 2022!! IDK about you but I am so ready for the new year. It is definitely time to close the door on 2021 and open the door to 2022. Of course, I probably felt that way about 2020 and every year prior. It is natural to look forward and hope. I mean in 365 days we all experienced the good, the bad and the ugly. We made memories. We experienced challenges. We celebrated. We grieved. And if you are reading this, we survived.
So now what? Well, I say we roll with these words from our Father… 😊
Isaiah 43:18-19“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.”
God’s Word is layered, and yes, these words were meant for Israel, but they are also meant for us. God is doing a new thing! What new thing might He be doing in your life?
I know, for me, I find myself excited in so many different ways. I have a new job, I have been working out again, God is doing exciting things here at YRW, and He is doing a cool work in my heart too. Last year was such a rollercoaster for me! If you followed us on the Faire podcast, you witnessed some of my struggle. I confess to allowing so much of the negative to get to me. I found myself being angry and frustrated and just struggling on so many levels.
But guess what!! God in His perfect and precious faithfulness is doing a NEW THING!! He does new things all the time and of course is not limited to New Years, but for me, being obsessed with calendars, making lists, and being a fairly linear thinker, New Years is a new beginning – a new year – a brand new calendar….
And, I am excited to forget the former things, to stop dwelling on the negative, to look forward to the new things, to see what springs up, to make sure I perceive it, to watch for the way in the wilderness and to be refreshed by the streams in the wasteland!! I am EXCITED!!!!!! Are you? ARE YOU EXCITED!!
I love to make resolutions… do you? And just like the grocery list, I may forget a few items, or start them and then leave them in the pantry to expire… but making the list is so much fun. It is silly and motivational and like a self-centered list of dreams and goals that may or may not come to fruition. It is hope and yearning to be a better me than the year before. If I even kind of accomplish one item on the list, I have done something worth celebrating.
What are some of my new year’s resolutions, you ask?? (ok, you really didn’t LOL) I won’t bore you with the specifics but I admit I find it exciting to make the list. I don’t even worry if I accomplish these things as much as I hope to have an awareness of and effort to be a better me in some way. It’s ok to self-assess. It’s healthy to set goals. It’s fun actually. I try to make them achievable and reasonable yet honest and worthy and it isn’t so much about a level of success as it is about the awareness. Because, in the big scheme of things, Jesus loves me regardless and I figure He’s in charge of my transformation anyway. Ok maybe it’s a little silly. The list making. The colored pens and stickers. The excitement over a new calendar. The hope of good things to come.
I will say the one resolution I am most excited about is choosing to walk in the new path through the wilderness and refresh myself in the streams the Lord will provide in the wasteland. Last year, I wasted so much time and energy and worry and negativity and nonsense as I lost my mind in the wasteland. And I’m done with that! No More! Moving on. I know I am only human and I give myself grace for the struggle but Jesus says we are more than conquerors. Time for me to spend more time up in the Sycamore tree like Zacchaeus and get my head above the wasteland so I can see Jesus and keep my eyes on Him.
HE IS DOING A NEW THING!!! Take some time to meditate on these two verses and enjoy the promise that is for you too. Will you perceive it? Will you take hold of the new thing, walk in the path He provides and refresh yourself in the streams of living water and rise above the wasteland?
That is my prayer and hope for God’s people for 2022. May we all rise above and be refreshed!
Wishing you all a Happy and Blessed New Year from all of us at YRW!