Looking at the New Decade with New Hope

Here we are once again – at the beginning of a New Year and infact a new decade – a time for re- evaluations and a season of new beginnings....a season of new hope. In couple of hours time, we usher in 2010. Isaiah 42:9 says "Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."

I believe it is always God's desire that we be filled with a sense of newness and freshness of what He desires and wants to do in our lives. He desires greatly for us to be filled with a renewed sense of purpose and destiny. This is what is really needed before we can give ourselves a good kick start. Jeremiah 29:11 says "The plans I have for you...are...good...to give you a future and a hope."

A few years ago the Soviet submarine Kursk went down in the Barents Sea. When the diving crews finally reached it they heard SOS signals coming from inside. Desperate sailors wondered "Is there any hope?" Sadly for them there wasn't.

Do you feel trapped in an impossible situation you can't seem to change or escape? If so, God is saying to you today, "The plans I have for you...are... good...to give you a future and a hope." Now, hope is not just the absence of despair, it's the presence of something greater; something only God can give. Hope is not passive; it's the most active force in the world because it's derived from the most powerful being of all - God. And it's never further away than He is. Clint Eastwood became famous for starring in a movie called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Four decades later some of us still use those words when describing certain aspects of life.

But here's the good news: through His amazing grace God can take the good, the bad and the ugly experiences in your life and use them to make you unbelievably better at what He created you for, whatever that might be! In God's economy all is redeemed and nothing is ever lost. He can take the good things we remember fondly, the bad things we might like to forget, and the ugly things that shaped us into people we didn't start out to be, and use all of them to facilitate His purpose for each and every one of us.

So, don't give up hope!

ViveAlive wish all my blog readers a Blessed New Year. I pray and hope that this blog has been a blessing for you in one way another. Be Blessed.