New Year's Blessings

I have a prayer for us this upcoming year.  I am praying that each of us will see God as our solution.  When our problems loom large, God will be the one we run to.  The one we cling to.  When the direction is dark and the path rocky, I pray we will look only to the light of Jesus to find our way.  When our heart is broken, aching and empty, I pray we camp on God's promises, immerse ourselves in His Word until we feel the balm of Gilead soothe our souls.  When no change seems to be on the horizon, I pray we look past the circumstances, past the present stagnation to the One Who holds our future in His hand and promises good plans for us.  This is the season I am in now, a season of crying out for change but seeing only sameness.  And so I hold on.  And I pray you are able to do the same.  I pray that we hold onto the truths our Lord gives.  Romans 8:31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  We are in His hands.  And there is no better place to be.  As I was doing my readings and studies this week I came across a sentence that really spoke to my heart the attitude with which the Lord wants me to go through this life. I've paraphrased it here in order to personalize it.  "I will not let myself sink to the level of the problem, instead I will make myself rise to the level of the solution.  That solution, the only solution, our only source and stay, is Jesus Christ.  When the waves of trouble come, when the doubts lash my mind and the empty happiness of the world flees my path...I will rise, coming boldly to the throne of grace....it is there that I will find my help and my hope.  In the Presence of God Himself is the fullness of joy I need to sustain me and the strength I need to overcome the weaknesses in myself.  I pray these things for us and over us this year.  And I do it in a spirit of thanksgiving and faith, knowing that He has good things for us, even when we have to unwrap them from the grave cloths of trials.  Happy New Year my brothers and sisters.  

Madeline