the past, present and future

As I sit tonight and reflect about the past year, and think about the last 11 days that will bring 2011 to completion, I am filled with a heart of joy and thankfulness. This past year has brought many smiles and much laughter. We have celebrated  new birth and another beginning of new life. We have shed some tears of joy and also some tears of despair, but God has been faithful to wipe away those tears and replace them with sweet peace and comfort. We have had times of uncertainty and times of divine affirmation. We have experienced the sweetness of God's grace and the awesome and mighty power of His healing Hand. 

I can look back over the past 12 months and see how God has been doing a work in my life. Increasing my hunger for Him. Drawing my heart for more knowledge of Him. Generously dispensing grace that I am so undeserving of. Growing my faith. Showing me that I can only flourish when I am totally dependent on Him.

He has shown me how to 'be still' in Him. How to rest in His promises. How to listen when He speaks and then to hold on to the Word that He gives me. He has shown me how to have a believing heart and has made me realize that He wants to give us good things! I have seen Him work and experienced Him in ways that I could never have imagined. I have felt His presence like never before and heard His voice with a new clarity. 

It's been a year of growing and learning. A year of searching and finding. A year of longing for more of my Savior. A year of miracles. And encounters. And life-changing revelations of the soul. 

As I think about the next year, there are many things that I hope to accomplish. I truly desire to continue to grow closer to my Lord every day. I long to be saturated in His love and enthralled with His glory.  I want to want Him with a new expectancy. I pray that I approach the Holy scriptures with more reverence and appreciate the Sovereignty of them with a deeper respect. 

May I never take the Word lightly but revere it and desire to obey it like never before. I pray that God continue to mold me and make me into His likeness. That He can use me for His glory, for His kingdom and for His purpose.  May I be passionate in my pursuit of Jesus and determined in my quest for holiness. May I be a true seeker of God.

His goodness overwhelms me and I stand in awe of who He is and what He does. May His name always astound me and fill me with wonder. As He reaches down and touches my life anew, I pray that He leaves His fingerprints all over me. I want to be real. Authentic. I want to be new and different. Changed forever. I want to be His. 

Looking forward and never glancing back as to what might have been, I strive to press on toward the finish line. No regrets, only resolutions for a new year. New mercies. A new intimacy with God. A new encounter with Jesus.  May I celebrate His birth every day of my life. 

"Today, a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you

in the city of David" - Luke 2:11