Looking Back on 2009!!!

WOW I am yet again in awe over just how FAST time continues to go by year after year. I cant believe another CHRISTmas has gone by again. As I now this last week of December try to gain control after the holiday madness lol (good MADNESS though) I find myself reflecting back on this last year 2009. I have endured alot as I know so many have. For me coming out of a personal matter in the first part of year and mid-year enduring my first ever car accident which was major and scary yet saw God's hand every step of the way , to missing dearly a true friend in which God moved away, to the Fall when my niece has come to live with us FULL TIME yes that is a whole other blog post, to many other trials throughout the year yet through it all God was with us every step of the way and I dont doubt that for a second.
I know for many of us marriages have endured heartaches, and children have gone astray, and some gone home to be with our Lord leaving families behind to cope, jobs lost, and financial struggles for many, job changes, or some struggling with addiction, bitterness, anger the list goes on and on doesn't it friends????
For me the one thing I can say after pondering and looking back over this last year is the fact I tried to live a "LIFE OF HOPE" and staying focused on what REALLY MATTERS!!
We are living in a hopeless world and if we take are mind off what REALLY MATTERS (God) and focus on our circumstances and look to the world to help we will stay in a doom and gloom.
I have found a new perspective this last year , one that holds on to the eternal promises of God Himself in order to manage the temporal concerns of life on earth. HOPE takes God at His WORD, letting His promises guide our every decision and every action; hope may NOT change our circumstances, but it will change the way we view them. As believers, a CHRIST-centered hope must be the foundation of our lives. I am reminded that in the end as our time draws to a close we will ALL be stripped of ALL earthly possessions wealth and all things temporal so lets not focus on the bad that happened in 09' but the hope we have in a magnifesent God and focus on all the blessings the year brought and our relationship with Him and the fact we DO have HOPE when there are so many LOST whom have yet to discover that hope FOUND in CHRIST
ALONE. So as we head into 2010 no matter what you are facing look to CHRIST alone to guide and direct you through it good or bad. We have the promise in His word that we can trust God alone in EVERY situation yes every one not some or the good ones but every trial too. (Psalm 9:10,56:3; Nahum 1:7). Let us hold unswervingly to the HOPE we profess, for He who promised is FAITHFUL. Hebrews 10:23
" Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can NEVER perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you." 1 Peter 1:3-4
God bless until next time with much love,
Cindy