With every new year we leave the wonder and joy of Christmas behind us and enter into the unknown.
All we know for certain is what yesterday looked like. Our next day, our next breath are yet to be.
Now's the time to remind ourselves this is true of all our life.
Always, you and I live in the now. In the moment.
Every moment of every day we choose--we choose--whether we will live with fear or with joy and anticipation.
Which will it be?
This is not to say it's easy to keep fear from getting the upper hand. Even when it seems our life is good, every headline and news report bombards us with new warnings and mandates.
Somewhat like the infamous Chinese water torture, all this drips, drips, drips into our awareness morning, noon and night.
But ... we never enter the unknown alone because God already is there.
Remember Psalm 139? Most of us, looking back at our lives, remember at least a few tough times sprinkled among the good. Times we felt alone and comfortless.
That's when rereading Psalm 139, verses 1-18, can lift our hearts.
I know all along that God is with us and of course, I pray. Yet every time I read the words of this beautiful Psalm they reassure me and calm my fearful heart.
Hang onto Bible verses you want to remember
Technology gives us countless ways to find Bible verses and also to mark them or copy them.
If you find yourself trying to remember a verse but only recall a few words of it, don't give up. This may be old news for you, but entering that phrase into even a general search engine will bring it up on your computer screen. If that same wording appears in several Bible they all will pop up, but it's easy to scroll through until you locate the one you're looking for.
Everyone finds the way that works for them. Some keep notes or highlight verses on their smart phone or on the computer.
When I find verses that "speak" to me I underline them or mark them in some way. Some years back I started also noting where to find them on the blank pages at the back of my battered old Bible. My old system is haphazard, but it works for me.
That's what jogged my memory with this verse, which is good advice for any day of any year.
I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life ... Deuteronomy 30:19-20
Want more reassurance?
The Bible book titled Lamentations doesn't sound reassuring, but Lamentations 3:22-23 gives us the perfect "brain snack" to start off our days:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Never cease. Never come to an end. New every morning. God is faithful.
Armed with reassurances like these you and I can prance into the unknown unafraid. (And and we will prance, won't we?)
Need more reassurance?
This author's timeless words paint a picture of the best way to travel on this journey into the unknown:
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown. And he replied: Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way. --Minnie L. Haskins
What's more, God tells us over and over how to live with courage, as in Joshua 1:9:
Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.
Know this for sure: Whatever the future may bring, He never gives up on us, never walks away because we've slipped up. Again.
I pray, dear reader, that each day you will know His peace in your heart.
With love,
Lenore
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