A new year makes me think of new beginnings. The move to a new calendar feels like a fresh start—a blank page with all sorts of possibilities. It’s easy to think now is when everything can change.
Then as January progresses into February, the newness wears of. The New Year’s resolutions are long forgotten and life feels the same as it was.
Or have we just stopped looking for the newness in our everyday?
New beginnings don’t depend on the change of the calendar year. God gives us a new start every day.
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions (mercies) never fail.
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I remember as a child waiting in anticipation for my birthday or for Christmas to arrive. Time moved slowly and the waiting dragged on forever.
As an adult, that time moves much more quickly. It seems like Christmas is around the corner again before last year’s gifts are put away. And birthdays…well, each one is not quite as exciting anymore. The anticipated wait doesn’t drag anymore. Now it flies by.
Waiting for the calendar page to turn—that’s not so hard. Unless time ends, one month will flow into the next, guaranteed.
But waiting on God? It. Is. Hard. Some days waiting on God feels impossible.
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One step forward, two steps back.
That’s the way it seems to go sometimes, doesn’t it? I’ve just recently been there, and it is so frustrating. The encouraging buildup to change becomes short lived. Progress is fleeting, and patience is in short supply.
So, what do we do when our slow movement forward quickly slides backwards?
Remember the positive change we did see. Change takes time. Whether we’re waiting for emotional healing, improvement in a health condition, a job offer, changed attitudes, an ease in difficult finances, or whatever it might be, it often usually takes more time than we would like.
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There are not degrees of sin—sin is sin. I know that. But sometimes, when sin looks like pure evil…well, that’s harder to swallow.
I recently attended a presentation on human trafficking in the United States. The speaker, a senior criminal investigator, informed us that there are more enslaved in the U.S. today than in any other time in history. I’d already been hearing that, so I wasn’t shocked, but to hear him describe the crimes, the victims, and how the traffickers work…it was upsetting in ways I can’t describe.
I watched as he paced while answering questions and heard his attempt to temper his words.
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“She’s taken some breathes on her own.” Those seven words brought a dramatic and noisy change to the hospital ICU waiting room. My family all cheered and laughed after too many days of careful, cautious smiles to one another. Hope is an amazing and powerful commodity. We cannot conjure it up on our own as hard as we may try. As believers we know that God is good and that He loves our mother even more than we do. So we hung on to that very real and deeply planted knowledge.
A few days later I asked Him where He was because things were not going well for our mom… His answer came swiftly, “As close as your breath.”
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Spring has always been my favorite season. I like that although 50 degrees in the fall feels cold, in the spring it feels like a heat wave. And with the warmer air, there’s hope that winter is nearing its end.
Spring reminds me of new life—buds on the trees, flowers peeking through the ground, the subtle shift of everything turning from brown to green…
And the new life we have in Jesus Christ.
New life because Jesus took on our punishment, and through His death and resurrection, we are set free from sin.
For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many.
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I recently had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of Jennifer Hand’s 31 Days to Coming Alive. Written as a daily devotional, her words captured my attention, and really got me thinking…and going deeper.
God could have made one common animal, but Genesis describes how He made varieties of animals, plants, ecosystems, environments, even the land and the sea. The powerful part of God? He spoke all of creation into being with His words. – Jennifer Hand, 31 Days to Coming Alive (bold mine)
I couldn’t help but stop here and ponder. God spoke all of creation into being—with His words.
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Advent is the season of waiting expectantly and preparing our hearts for the arrival of Baby Jesus. We reflect on the miraculous conception, the birth in lowest of conditions, and the fulfillment of the prophecy…
…the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). Isaiah 7:14 (NLT)
We rejoice on Christmas morning—Christ is born!
And then…Christmas is over. Or at least that’s how it feels. We put the Christmas decorations away and go back to our busy lives as usual.
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