ALL YOU NEED FOR 2019
by Emily Sutherland
 

How is 2019 treating you so far, friend?

Do you find this New Year exciting? Or daunting?

These weeks following the holiday season might bring you a sense of welcome relief after all the holiday celebrations – a chance to catch your breath and rest. Or maybe they stir in you a fresh resolve to move mountains and make your big dreams happen this year.

Do you enjoy setting new goals and resolutions?  Or would you rather take this year one day at a time?

I’ll be honest. I’m a mixed bag of all of the above as 2019 settles in.  I want to make the coming year the best one yet, but I’m still reeling after a year that stripped me of so much I thought I could count on.

Regardless of how we feel about the year ahead, sooner or later the moment will arrive when we are reminded, once again, that hope in ourselves only takes us so far.

Our lives are intertwined and held together by Love that we can’t live without. He came to help us know how to live on this broken planet. Jesus, whose birth we just celebrated a few week ago, might mean more to us in January than any other time of year, because He is the only reliable and unchanging hope we can cling to, year after year.

Every single time I try to force my own plans, or forge ahead in my limited strength, I inevitably grow discouraged and disappointed. My plans fall flat, I lose vision and life’s demands start to feel like a waste of energy.

But then I remember how He has met me in my darkest hours, how He grants wisdom and strength I can’t muster up on my own.

And the best part is… He will do it again, and again, and again.

He where our Hope comes from.

So, friend, when you don’t know what’s ahead, and can’t make sense of what’s behind, the one thing you can count on is His strength inside you. He will sustain you. He has all you will ever need for 2019.

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
Psalm 42:5 (NKJV)