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May Christ Reign Over My New Year
              What will this New Year bring?  Are you one of those who could not have imagined how your heart would experience the sadness of living in a fallen world in the year just past?  If so, that was one of those years in which you were given the opportunity to learn great lessons that you never want to experience again.  Even though you may have experienced pain, Christ has reigned over your year.  He reigns from heaven.  Others may be devastated by your pain, but if you were able to rise above your personal torment—getting up to face the world in spite of all that has happened, it is because Christ.  It was not accomplished without the ears of caring friends and family and most importantly; the comfort of the God of all comfort. If you are still trusting God in spite of all 2018 brought you, then you have applied His truth as balm to your wounds.
              Personally, I don’t want a year of feeling so sad, but I can say that there have been good and hard lessons that have brought me closer to Christ and closer to many others through every hard lesson I have learned.  As I consider the year ahead, I don’t feel at all immune to any greater suffering.  Though I see none on the horizon, I only feel certain that I have a lot more to learn and that God always brings good out of all things I experience.
              As I think about the year ahead, I hope that I will not take one day for granted.  I hope that I will think about God more minutes of each day.  I want to make some progress on my Spanish too.  I would love it if I wasn’t so selfish and truly sensed every good work God has predestined for me to do and that I do it right away.  I don’t want God to teach me hard lessons, I would like them to be all the easy kind.  Yet, I will keep my heart open to God’s goodness no matter what this next year brings.
              I’ve already got a calendar filled with trips, events and plans all the while not knowing for sure if they will happen or be experienced.  I will do my best day by day.  I will think about ways I can improve the year that lays ahead.  I can ask five important questions in my attempt to improve this year over last.
              What will I do with my time?
              What will I do with my money?
              What will I do with my relationships?
              What will I do with my body?
              What will I do with my spiritual life?
              The most important focus on the new year is to ask Christ to reign over my New Year.  I want more and more of Him in my life.  This was the sweet prayer of Paul for Christians.  “It’s my prayer for you.  And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11).  I would say abounding more and more in the knowledge and depth of Christ is letting Christ reign over your New Year.
Copyright © 2018 Deborah R Newman teatimeforyoursoul.com All Rights Reserved.

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