New Year, New Beginnings

2016 Promises

Psalm 65:11-13

Hi Beautiful, Happy New Year!  I don’t know about you, but 2015 offered many blessings, opportunities, and celebrations interwoven with pain and grief that the obedience and stretching delivered.  It was literally a roller coaster ride filled with many emotions!  There were times when I couldn’t catch my breath due to the excitement and/or intensity, the abrupt pace of the constant change, not to mention the sudden impact that the huge roadblock delivered!  Hello… can you relate?  I know many of us Beautiful Beloveds can.   

You know those times when we’re cruising merrily along with no worries in sight (in our dreams, maybe ♥) and then before we know it, the very ground under which we are standing gives way to a journey filled with free-falling and unknowns requiring unconditional trust and deep faith.  That journey requires the faith set out in walking by faith and not by sight that complete abandonment demands in order to get out of the boat and walk on the water that is before you (Matthew 14:22-33).  That’s faith in action focusing on the favor that reaching up for God to help sustains.  Those twists and turns that were thrusting from all sides, causing me to surrender the last bit of control I had as I hung on for dear life, awaiting my Faithful Deliverer were brutal!  Oh, how we are loved and surrounded by His Great Love.  He loves us just the way we are. 

What an exhilarating ride it was!  Now that I lived through it, I will know how to ride any roller coaster with my arms stretched up high without the piercing screams damaging my vocal cords and everyone near!  The woman I am today, saved and sustained by pure grace, could never have developed had I not trusted the One who held my very hand leading me to where He wanted (Isaiah 41:10-13).  I have met the most amazing and incredible people this girl could ever imagine and I have watched God blow my mind by His sudden miracles and blessings that painful obedience brought on through trust.

God challenges our faith by stretching us; and that oftentimes requires pain.  But oh, girlfriend, the beauty that develops in and through the ashes is nothing short of Divine!  He may stop us from going or doing something He knows will hurt us or He just wants to change the path our current journey was leading us on; but as I look back at the doors He closed, the friendships He asked me to end, and the overwhelming challenges to take on, I may have thrown my Tammy Tantrum fits because they were painful and depleting at the time, but now that my eyes are further opened and I can see what He was preparing me for, I am grateful for His tender mercies and strength that sustained me each and every day.

Psalm 65:11-13 speaks loudly to the promises I’m claiming in 2016.  “You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.  The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.  The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.”

You know what, Beautiful Beloved, 2016 offers promises of new beginnings, of hope, of peace, of love, and days of abundant provision and favor!  This year may pose all the same trials and tribulations that filled last year’s challenges, but one thing I am certain of:  “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken…Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken” Psalm 62:1-6.

You know what, girlfriend, we can attain these promises of fresh and new beginnings by cleaving into and pressing into the Lord where we can express freedom in our true feelings to God through prayer so we will be able to release all the deadly effects that the emotional stressors of anxiety causes and what our fears and tears project, and leave them at Jesus’ feet so we can get back up on our feet and stand tall knowing our crowns are secure. 

To be able to trust Him at His Word; that He is our rock, our salvation and our fortress, offers us a new perspective for 2016 and enables us to receive the abundant Favor and Blessings He eagerly awaits to lavish upon us.  Happy New Year, Beautiful!  Receive 2016 as a year filled with Promise, Hope, Provision and Abundant Favor!

Until next time…

Thank You for being Beautiful You!