Did 2016 feel like a “dry wasteland” to you?
Did your wasteland look like several seasons of illness, or a family conflict, or the loss of someone you love?
Did your wasteland look like a broken friendship or a failing marriage?
Maybe you struggled with unemployment, or a general lack of direction and relentless feelings of aimlessness…
Do you believe God can create “rivers” in the midst of such dryness?
Do you believe God offers hope for the future… or is life just something to push through?
If you’re struggling to “cast a vision” for the new year, why not take some time today, with no distractions, to surrender 2017 to your loving Father?
Pull up a seat, a hammock, or a cushion, and let it all out with God. Pray and weep and rejoice, and praise the one who doesn’t promise a perfect life – but who can do “a new thing” in the midst of your circumstances.
Bow down to the one who can make a way in the wilderness, and who has already made a way through Jesus.
Be honest with him. Ask the impossible of him. And trust him to handle your future.
“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.”
– Isaiah 43:19 NIV
It's a God thing... 
Hey Ali!
For some reason your blog does not seem to have the option to “like” a post but I just wanted to say I love what you have written here and I hope that your 2017 will be much better than 2016. I know that for me 2016 was not my best year since I was sick for the most part of it, but I know that God will do a new thing for the coming year. God bless sis and Happy New Year!
Sherline. 😀
I’m so sorry you battled illness last year. Praying this year will be more healthy and full of hope. Thanks for stopping by!
wishing you the same hun. God Bless 🙂
Happy new year! Thank you for your inspirational post ! I like the scriptural reference as well! Perfect for your writing!
Thanks Rick! May your new year be full of hope, promise, and expectation 🙂
Thank You, dear Ali, for helping go into the New Year with hope in Jesus! God bless you and yours and your new year!
Bless you, Debbie! May we keep holding onto the hope that’s found in Jesus!
I hear many people saying 2016 was really bad for them in so many ways. I will admit it was not the best of years for me, but it was by no means all that bad. If anything it was a learning experience in many areas of my life and faith. A learning experience cannot be bad if it teaches you something.
Wishing you a safe, happy, and blessed new year.
I’m sorry it wasn’t the best of years. It wasn’t great for me either, though there was learning to be had too. Praying this year would be strengthening and hope-filled.
~~ “Pull up a seat, a hammock, or a cushion, and let it all out with God. Pray and weep and rejoice, and praise the one who doesn’t promise a perfect life – but who can do “a new thing” in the midst of your circumstances.” ~~ THAT is a perfect way to let go of the old year and embrace a new year! 🙂
Amen, Liz. Praying you’d embrace the year ahead and all God has for you 🙂
🙂
I quite like this challenging post, as a step away from self reliance and move towards a faithful dependence can only be a good thing.
A question remains however – are we not so much called to let God help us through so much as availing ourselves to let Him do his work through us?
There’s a tendency amongst some to just see how much blessing God can dispense when we are actually called into service for furthering his kingdom.
Good point, snowgood, and I agree. There’s a certain passivity in just waiting on God for blessings/miracles. Sometimes the miracles/changes come when we step out in service to him.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us:
1 John 4:11-12 ASV
I love these verses, Ron. It’s amazing how much God tells us to love others in the Bible – as if to say this is how he makes himself known to us, and the world around us.
May we continue to love as he loved us 🙂