Happy New Year!
Whatever you experienced in 2015 – the good, the bad and the ugly – are now all but shadows of the mind and memory – to be left at the feet of Jesus. What a sweet thing to be able to offer up a year of thanksgiving and worship God for what He did in 2015. What a sacred thing to also be able to give all of our burdens, pains and hurts from 2015 to Jesus, trusting in Christ’s strength to carry those things that are too much for us to carry alone.
New Year is often a time full of hope with opportunity to start fresh, set goals, reflect and adjust how we live life – yet we are to remember that every new day is a gift from God, as His mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3). One week into the new year and already discouraged by some of your resolutions that are already slipping or you have yet to begin? Take heart and be encouraged: whatever is to come in 2016 – the good, the bad and the ugly, and just like the seasons in the North East of the USA – we will experience them all! – each day, including today, is a new day to choose JOY and claim the gift of PEACE in whatever adventures, celebrations, storms and challenges may arise!
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.”
-Prayer of St Francis
Jump for Joy in 2016