The new year is just around the corner. We get to this time of year, each year, and wonder where the time has gone. We think about things that happened through the year, as well as things we hoped to accomplish... but are yet to be done.
Unless you have been camped out under a rock somewhere for the past couple of months, you know that there are many uncertainties ahead in the months to come. From fiscal cliffs to weapons bans to continued Godlessness in society. From turmoil in the middle east to imposed medical care laws to threats of increased job layoffs... There are many uncertaintees in the days ahead.
It's sometimes hard to wrap my brain around how big God is. Beyond that, it's hard to accept that as big and as powerful as God is, He recognizes MY personal concerns and desires to have a relationship with me. Geez, there are times I don't even want to be around ME.
It's times like that where I go back to some verses that have been pasted in my brain from a very early age...
Philippians 4:6-9
The Message (MSG)
6-7 Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
It's time to set our focus on the goodness of God. We need to uncover, acknowlege and verbalize the traits and character of God to ourselves and to others. I'm reminded of some words from a song we sang in church when I was growing up: "...and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace."
Have a blessed new year!
