I still have a lot to learn about gratitude and perspective.  It is a subject the Lord has had at the forefront of my mind and heart often…especially over the past year.  This past weekend I heard something that made me realize it needs to be on my heart and mind a whole lot more often!  It was a simple statement: ”Feast on what God is doing and what He has done, rather than on what He hasn’t done.”  

I had entered the new year in a so-so state of heart and mind.  The previous year had some marvelous “ups”–but it also had some very significant “downs.”  It’ wasn’t that I was only focused on the downs, but I did allow those things to have a more significant place in my heart than they should have.  And it wasn’t just the downs of the past year that found a place in my heart, somehow I started to become really fixed on all the unanswered prayers that have sort of accumulated over the years.  In that state of mind, my heart became really weary and it was a constant battle to maintain a right perspective.  That’s because I was feasting more on what God hadn’t done than on what He was currently doing and on what He had already done.  It wasn’t doing my heart a bit of good.

So yet again I have realized I have a choice.  And I choose to feast on what He is doing and what He has already done.  When I make that choice, it isn’t a fight to maintain a right perspective and a heart of gratitude.  Sure, there are still lots of unanswered prayers and lots of things that are hard right now, but there is also a LOT that is good.  There are a LOT of prayers God has answered–many of them very specifically.  And there is so, so, so much that He is currently doing.  I’ve made a purposeful determination that this is the banquet I’m going to feast from.  And if I stay at this table, I will never lack for good things to “eat.”

For the first time in a while I really am excited again.  It’s going to be a great year!

It’s a New Year and a new beginning.  A time to reflect on God’s faithfulness in the past and to look forward with anticipation of His continued goodness and faithfulness in the future.   A LOT has happened in this past year.  Lots to still sort through.  I should be writing a real update (and I will one of these days–I promise!) but instead I’m just pondering.  This morning I’m pondering the subject of hope.

A Scripture that keeps going through my head these days is Romans 4:18 “Against all hope, Abraham in hope, believed.”  Against all hope, in hope, he believed.  A little later in Romans 8:24-25 Paul says, “…hope that is seen is no hope at all, for who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”  

I don’t know how patiently I’m waiting these days, but when I remember God’s faithfulness, and really just remember the reality of who He is, I do have hope.    ”I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope.  My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning–yes, more than those who watch for the morning” (Ps.130:5-6).  That’s always struck me so profoundly…those who wait for Him have a hope that is more sure than the fact that the sun will rise again in the morning.   And there aren’t too many of us who doubt the sun will rise in the morning.

He’s been faithful in the past…He has been causing that sun to rise every single day without fail for a long, long time…and He’ll be faithfull in the future.  This world languished for thousands of years under the weight of its sin, but at just the right time our Redeemer did come.  Just like He promised.  And if He came once…He’ll come again.

This morning as I face the new year I have a lot of uncertainty about a lot of things.  I’ve got tons of unanswered questions and more than a few doubts.  I’ve got a lot of things weighing on me that are undoubtedly clouding my vision.  But I’ve also got something else…hope. 

He has been faithful in the past.  He will be faithful in the future.  ”I wait for the Lord my soul waits, and in Him I do hope.  My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning–yes, more than those who watch for the morning.” 

May it be a year of waiting on Him in unwavering hope.  He is faithful.