Isaiah 43:19 says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
The beginning of each year is a great time to take the opportunity to do a new thing. We can look at what we’ve done, where we’ve been, and see what we should hold on to, and what we should give up. After all, we want the coming year to be better in every way. It’s not easy though, because the world is complicated and unexpected things happen. Sometimes those things throw us off course and slow us down. A hymn writer named Frances Ridley Havergal wrote, “In perplexities, when we cannot tell what to do, when we cannot understand what is going on around us, let us be calmed and steadied and made patient by the thought that what is hidden from us is not hidden from God.”
Isn’t that a great thought? Nothing that happens to us is a surprise to God! He is there to help us take on the storms of life without fear. He is with us in the everyday happenings of our lives. We are walking arm in arm with the only One who has all the answers. We just have to look for the clues He posts all around us to help us move through life.
God is always doing a new thing in our lives. We know this because we change, and we get in trouble, and we doubt and wander off. We lose sight of Him, but He doesn’t lose sight of us. He doesn’t get tired of picking us up and dusting us off. He just asks us to keep looking for Him, keep trusting Him, because He will do a new thing to make a way where there was no way before. Enter the New Year with joy then, knowing you are not alone.
As you start 2024, can you give up your need for the answers? Simply remember that God has gone before you, preparing the way for your good, making a way for you to follow Him each day. The one who can make streams in the deserts, can surely bring refreshment and nourishment to our parched souls. May your heart be filled with calm assurance as we begin another new year. As a beloved gospel song says, “He’s got the whole world in His hands!”
Blessings and joy to each of you in 2024, my friends!