Having said that as I have pondered the events and lessons of the last 365 days I have seen a theme emerge. One in which I plan on carrying into 2014....
He has strengthened my arms for battle and my hands for war... There aren't many days of this past year or a past few years that I would desire to live over again. Yet as I have contemplated the starting of 2014 I have realized an incredible fact. I feel a strength inside I have never felt before.
It is a strength forged in a battle. It is a strength birthed just from not giving up or giving in. It is a strength and resiliency based upon the fact that my God is good and He is faithful. Regardless of any situation or circumstance His goodness prevails over and over and over and over and over again.
2013 I am glad to see you go and while some of your horrors filter into what will be the beginning hours of 2014 you still will not get the best of me.... For I know my redeemer lives...
I don't really, if I am honest, consider it all joy... as James says...
James 1:2-4
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
However I am seeing endurance having its result and for that I am glad.... I enter 2014 seeing that my arms have indeed been strengthened and my steps are assured in Him....
I enter 2014 with a dearest of family members not feeling so well (putting it mildly) and in other places the future continues to seem so uncertain BUT what is certain is that He is good and He is faithful! I enter 2014 realizing that my faith has been tested and endurance is coming forward... My eyes have wept and my heart has felt faint and yet my steps continue to be put one in front of the other...
So 2014 I do not enter you with some heroic statement nor with any glorious endeavors or goal setting standards.. I enter you probably the most humble I have ever entered a year (is that lacking humility in saying that..lol) I enter you with a heart that feels frail and beaten and battered but that has learned a strength beyond anything it has ever touched... 2014 I don't know what you hold.. I won't prophesy concerning you.... But I will say this... I welcome you.. I welcome the presence of the Lord into you... and my prayer is that as you unfold I will continue to be strengthened and continue to know and acknowledge the goodness and faithfulness of my God...
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living and I will rejoice in Him and lift His name on high..
May this year find you in Him all the more...
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