The old is wasting away, the new is breaking through.
2015 was a really good year and a pretty hard year for me personally and in the world and local news. Some years ago a couple of verses in the book of Isaiah became my close friends. As time passed, they were buried in my journals and heart, all but forgotten.
Then December 31st, 2015 they came at me from several directions. They were the fresh air I needed:
43:18 “Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.”
Verse 18 has layers of meaning for me.
Last fall I was ministering to women who are coming to grips with difficult situations in their lives. Situations different from, but similar to things I have lived through. “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” These words act as a safe boundary for me.
Difficult things in my past are not the sum total of who I am. They are part of my history, or HIStory, if you will allow the play on words. Learning to see our stories as our Creator does is a process. Our true identity is who God says we are, loved, chosen and called to bring Him glory.
The world and local news also shout at us that the world today is way more complicated than the one we lived in even at the turn of this century. With technology putting mini computers in billions of people’s hands and real-time news available from around the globe we can be bombarded with sensory overload.
Cell phones were only a far-fetched thought back when I was growing up. My mom used to point to my now grown children’s cell phones and say “I’d have killed for one of those when I was your age!” and she was only barely joking.
Things are new, ways are new. Fortunately, God and His character does not change.
For us to move into 2016 we need to step out of the past into the present, taking one step at a time into our destinies. We are created for the promises of God and abundant lives.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing”
Let’s jump in wholeheartedly and discover….
Abba, Thank you for your faithful presence in our lives! Thank you for wanting us to know You and Your best for us even more than we do. “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Amen
Let the adventure begin!
