A Time to Look Forward!

As we come to the eve of a new year, most of us our looking forward towards 2016 with all kinds of hope and expectation.  Some of us are looking forward to graduating or towards a marriage or the birth of a baby.  Some of us are hoping to make some progress with our exercise plan or diet.  Others are hoping for a new job or financial stability.  Some of us are simply hoping 2016 will be better than 2015. 

The eve of a new year is just naturally a time of hope and expectation. It is a time to look forward. Unfortunately, however, there are many people who, after hoping and dreaming for so many years and not having their hopes and dreams realized, have given up on hope.  They have thrown in the proverbial towel on hope. Thus, they no longer look forward. They no longer dream of what might be, could be, or should be. If that is you, I want to encourage you to know that we serve a God who always brings new hope. He is a God who calls us to look forward—to look ahead with great expectation—and who gives us reason to do so!

Through the prophet Isaiah, God said to his people, during a time when they had given up hope, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 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 43:18-19 – NIV) As the Apostle Paul put it, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him!” (1 Corinthians 2:9 – NLT)  Notice, God calls his people to look forward filled with hope and expectation not based on their current situation or based on what they were able to accomplish. He calls them to look forward based on who he is and what he is able to do for his people. 

It’s true that life does not always work out the way we thought it would. Maybe 2015 revealed that to you. But that does not mean that God is done with you.  And, it does not mean that your life will always be as it is today.  God is yet at work and is more than able to do something new in your life. So, as you step into this new year, put your trust in God. I know he is able to fill you with new hope, making this a time to look forward. 

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”  (Romans 15:13 – NLT)   

Have a great day and a blessed New Year! 

Pastor Tim Harris