New Year Thoughts

It’s another new year.  So are you excited, concerned, or indifferent about that?  I think how I answer that question reveals something about my personality and the way I’m wired.  Some people like changes, and others don’t.  Newness can be scary, and even God-ordained changes require adjustments.  Changes move us out of our comfort zone and bring with them a loss of predictability and a lack of security.  Newness takes away some of the things we have been able to count on.  I don’t know everything that this new year will bring, and that can result in a feeling of unrest.  I want the newness brought about by changes to feel just-as-good as everything was before the changes.

But how I answer that question also reveals something about my faith.  It’s important that we find our security in God’s unchanging qualities instead of looking at our changing lives here on earth for answers, focusing on God’s unchanging nature instead of our experiences.  Because our spiritual, physical, and emotional lives are all inter-connected, sometimes God ordains physical or emotional changes, as well as lifestyle changes, in order to effect the spiritual changes he wants in us.  Many times we seek to control the changes by manipulating our circumstances rather than trusting God’s work in us and walking by faith.  We have to be willing to trust him enough to trust the process rather than getting sidetracked by the individual changes as they occur.

As I start a new year, I want to be more excited than concerned.  I want to see the newness as a gift from God as he continues to work in my life and grow me.  And I want to be able to experience the peace and contentment that come from trusting God when changes happen:

Isaiah 26:3-4:

“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! . . . the Lord God is the eternal Rock” (NLT).

“People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole . . . Depend on God . . . in the Lord God you have a sure thing” (MSG).

Peace and contentment come because we are supported by God’s unchanging love and power – not our own – and, therefore, change is not able to shake us.  We look to God to provide our contentment and security and discover that we are whole because in him we have a sure thing regardless of what is going on around us or happening to us.

I don’t know exactly what this new year will bring, but I know that an unchanging God who loves me will not be surprised by anything that happens.  I know he can be trusted to do what is best for me and to walk with me every step of the way.  With those things in mind, I can say without reservation, “Happy New Year”!