Another Year Ends

Greetings!!!

As you look back on 2008, how do you feel about it? Is it a year that you are glad to see completed or would you like to live it over again? As you step into a new year, are you filled with anxiety, dread, excitement or anticipation? Has 2008 been a good year for you or bad? What are your expectations for 2009?

Whether your year has been the greatest in your life or the most dreaded, as the year 2008 closes and 2009 begins meditate on the words of Paul in Philippians 3:7-14. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which come from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Again, I ask, as you look back on 2008, what was it like for you? Was it a good year or a bad one? A year of great sorrow or great rejoicing? A year of loss or gain? Whatever 2008 held for you is now past. Nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken away. It came to pass. Whatever 2008 was, it is time to put it behind and push forward with expectancy in what God will do in your life in 2009. Good or bad, forget the past and press into what the Lord has in store for you. He loves you. His desire is for you. It is amazing what He will do to get your attention to draw you near to Himself. Do not fight Him. Fall into His love! Throw yourself and all your cares into His arms. He is a big God. He can take care of all your past and every day you have yet to come.

The LORD bless you with forgetting what lies behind and reaching for what lies ahead in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I love you,

Ruth