Saturday, January 1

Thoughts in the new year

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(Not my photo)

This was my Streams in the Desert for today:

"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! --N.L. Zinzendorf


Everybody's posting new year's resolutions. I'm going to have a new baby in April, so that's the big one: get through labor without too much grumbling.

Other things I'd like to do but can't really resolve to:

Make more baskets and get better at it

Try my hand at making orange or lemon marmalade

Read more classic books

Walk more and get in better shape

Enjoy my kids

Spend more time with God every day

Update my blogs more often. :-)

1 comment:

Farm Girl said...

Very nice goals and I think you could achieve them, I do have oranges and lemons for the marmalade. :) Yeah, it is hard to make plans with labor staring at ya in the face. But it is doable.
Blessings today and I would pick that same verse forgetting the things that lay behind... Happy New Year!

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