What is your strategy for facing this New Year?  How about starting this first week with a promise a day to get you going?  Today our verse is Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst,  a mighty one who will save;  he will rejoice over you with gladness;  he will quiet you by his love;  he will exult over you with loud singing. ”   I love this verse as tells us plainly-HE SAVES, He rejoices over me, He will calm me with His love and He will sing over me!

What wonderful promises to encourage and keep us going when things get hard!   Have you ever thought about God rejoicing and singing over you?  What have you done for Him that He would be rejoicing about?  God specifically tells us to proclaim the gospel, good news, about Jesus so others can know His love and redemption.  He calls us to serve and love others in His name-having the motivating factor in that love coming from God.  In John 14:23 “Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”  Obedience also causes the Lord to rejoice. 

 What about calming you with His love?  Has that ever happened to you?  I like to think of this as calming my spirit as I struggle with a difficult situation, bringing peace in the midst of chaos, bringing hope when I’m discouraged.  The Holy Spirit can touch us personally as He dwells within or He may send someone else with a word of encouragement or a kind deed.  God promises in this verse that Jesus is with us and that He will save us.  Jesus came to save- let Him save you.  Accepting His love and redemption into our lives is a one time event but then He continues to live within us and save us to a greater extent with each day.  The fancy word for this is sanctification, the growing and developing in Christ.  Let Him work within you each day and mold and shape you into who He wants you to be.

Be encouraged this 2nd day of 2018, God SAVES, He will comfort you with His love and will rejoice over you with singing.

Linda

Can you believe another New Year is upon us?  What do you need today for your new beginning?  Here are a couple of passages that always inspire me when I begin something new.

Lamentations 3:21-23   “But this I call to mind,  and therefore I have hope:   The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;  his mercies never come to an end;  they are new every morning;  great is your faithfulness.”   These verses reassure me that each day and year is a new beginning.  We do not need to face yesterday’s troubles today without hope.  He promises His mercies and love are unending with each new day.  God is ever faithful.

Isaiah 40:28-31    “Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God,  the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary;  his understanding is unsearchable.   He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.   Even youths shall faint and be weary,  and young men shall fall exhausted;   but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;  they shall mount up with wings like eagles;  they shall run and not be weary;  they shall walk and not faint.”     These verses show us God is in control and knows all things.  He will give us the power and strength we need when we feel faint or weary.  God will renew us and keep us walking forward with Him!

I pray that as you start 2018 you have Hope in your heart, assurance of God’s unending love and mercy and are comforted knowing He will be your strength and guide.  Let the New Year begin remembering Deuteronomy 31:6  “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Praising God for a New Year and  a New Beginning,

Linda

As we draw to the end of 2017, let’s end this year victoriously.  Taking a look at Chronicles 16:8-12 we see King David’s perspective and thanksgiving on bringing the ark of the covenant into their midst.  He rejoiced in all God had done and trusted in what God would do in the future.  Focus on the verbs David uses.

We serve a mighty God.  He deserves our thanks as we remember what He has done for us in 2017.   Because of His love and mercy towards me this year, I am compelled to proclaim, tell, sing, rejoice, revere, remember and continue to seek Him.  How about you?  Is this your response to God’s care and provision in 2017?