New Year : some thoughts and a poem

 For many, 2021 has not been a happy year, but rather an extremely difficult one. While there are no guarantees 2022 will be any happier, we who have trusted in the LORD Jesus Christ have the assurance that our life and times are in His hands, and that is the safest place for everything.

 We can rest in His faithfulness and rejoice that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We can remember how He has shown us His goodness numerous times and we should always praise Him for His great mercy and grace, as without these, we would not have survived.

  At the beginning of 2021, I did something  silly (I'll spare you the details so none of you are tempted to try it yourself 😉) which gave me the idea that I might not still be around in 2022. Yet we've reached the final day of 2021 and I'm still here. Yet, none of us know how soon our life may be taken. I hope that I will learn not to take anything for granted, but to be grateful to the Lord for every day He sees fit to keep me alive.

 I'm glad we don't have the ability at the beginning of a year to know all that will happen through it. I'm very glad the Lord invites us to walk with Him, each day, step by step and if we can learn how to do that, we will be greatly blessed. He has proven Himself trustworthy throughout the generations past, and He never changes!  Despite our fickleness and wayward wanderings, the Lord continues to lovingly draw us closer to Himself.

 Hebrews 8:12 says, "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” How good and kind the Lord has promised to be.

 I'm so glad He has chosen to forgive and forget my sins because I trust Him that His death on the Cross paid the price I owed. Thank You Lord Jesus that You were willing to take my place so I can have a restored relationship with the Holy God!

 I was catching up reading a few devotionals and these verses from Psalm 116 "jumped out" at me. 

"What shall I render to the Lord
For all His benefits toward me?
13 I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord."

Later that evening a dear friend read excerpts from that same Psalm to me, including:

"Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful. Return to your rest, O my soul, For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." 

He has truly dealt with me far more bountifully than I even realise! I need to choose every day to remember His goodness and forget the other stuff that would drag me down. 

I'll leave you with a poem, and pray, (whether you have a Happy New Year or not,) that the Lord will bless you.