An Encouraging View for the New Year

Hello friends out there in cyberspace on this 2nd day of the Year of our Lord 2006.  I have been a little too busy to blog much, but thought you might get some encouragment from a daily devotional I read called "STREAMS IN THE DESERT."  This particular reading is filled with a faith perspective that looks forward to the unknown year ahead with expectation and hope.  Enjoy and then act upon what you have read with the knowledge that your Father in heaven is going before you as you possess new territory for his kingdom!  God's richest blessings upon you in this New Year!

            New Year            

            by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman


            

"The
land whither ye go to possess it is a land of hills and valleys and
drinketh water of the rain of heaven: a land which the Lord thy God
careth for: the eyes of the Lord are always upon it, from the beginning
of the year even unto the end of the year" (Deut. 11:11-12).

Today dear friends, we stand upon the verge of the unknown. There
lies before us the new year and we are going forth to possess it. Who
can tell what we shall find? What new experiences, what changes shall
come, what new needs shall arise? But here is the cheering, comforting,
gladdening message from our Heavenly Father, "The Lord thy God careth for it." "His eyes are upon it away to the ending of the year."

All our supply is to come from the Lord. Here are springs that shall
never dry; here are fountains and streams that shall never be cut off.
Here, anxious one, is the gracious pledge of the Heavenly Father. If He
be the Source of our mercies they can never fail us. No heat, no
drought can parch that river, "the streams whereof make glad the city
of God."

The land is a land of hills and valleys. It is not all
smooth nor all down hill. If life were all one dead level the dull
sameness would oppress us; we want the hills and the valleys. The hills
collect the rain for a hundred fruitful valleys. Ah, so it is with us!
It is the hill difficulty that drives us to the throne of grace and
brings down the shower of blessing; the hills, the bleak hills of life
that we wonder at and perhaps grumble at, bring down the showers. How
many have perished in the wilderness, buried under its golden sands,
who would have lived and thriven in the hill-country; how many would
have been killed by the frost, blighted with winds, swept desolate of
tree and fruit but for the hill-stern, hard, rugged, so steep to climb.
God's hills are a gracious protection for His people against their foes!

We cannot tell what loss and sorrow and trial are doing. Trust only.
The Father comes near to take our hand and lead us on our way today. It
shall be a good, a blessed new year!

He leads us on by paths we did not know;

Upward He leads us, though our steps be slow,

Though oft we faint and falter on the way,

Though storms and darkness oft obscure the day;

Yet when the clouds are gone,

We know He leads us on.

He leads us on through all the unquiet years;

Past all our dreamland hopes, and doubts and fears,

He guides our steps, through all the tangled maze

Of losses, sorrows, and o'erclouded days;

We know His will is done;

And still He leads us on.

--N.L. Zinzendorf