HE was there all along....

New Year...New Beginning...Same old stuff.  Does not have to be that way.  We have an out.  Good News!  There is a healer.  His name is Jesus.  He is always willing and waiting just for the opportunity to change our lives.  We need only to ask.

2016 was a year of confusion, concern, disappointment, challenge, more disappointment, suffering, doubt, and a sincere lack of faith for me.  This is not to say in any way that God was not with me.  He was there all along.  I stepped away.  Not from my belief in Him but certainly in my dependence on Him.  I was weak and down hearted.  I was struggling just to see Him in every day life and activities. Not because He wasn't visible or present.  But rather...because I took my eyes off of Him.  I internalized all that was going on around me and sealed it away in a neat little dark place.  I chose to work through things in my own timing and in my own arrogance instead of believing that I could leave all of my pain with Him at the cross and let Him walk with me through the darkness.

This from someone who has known Jesus as Savior since I was a mere 7 years old.  I know truth.  I believe it.  I just didn't apply it.  I chose instead to wallow in my own self pity and expect things to change.  Change is work.  We all have to engage in our personal relationship with God.  It is never a one way street.  I forgot to relinquish my ways to adopt His ways.  They are always perfect.  Mine are flawed.

The absolute truth that I so earnestly want to cling to is that He is able.  He is willing.  He is my strength in times of weakness.  He is literally my rock in sinking sand.  I want to live there.  I want to build my house on that solid rock and be secure in His presence.

2017 will not be worry free, trouble free, free from suffering, or even void of challenge.  However, I am in a place of rest in Him.  He is my foundation and I will remain in Him and He in me.  God is good always.....even when we are blinded to His grace by our own ignorance.

It all comes down to this...."God opposed the proud, but gives grace to the humble."  James 3:6b.  I want to be humble in His eyes.