Prayer Changes Things!

Hello, Friends

I don't have much time to be on here today as our day is pretty spent before it has even begun. But, I didn't want to leave my post empty so I found a prayer for the New year that I would like to share with you and perhaps you can make it your own to pray to our God that blesses us with His Good things. In the meantime, I should be back tomorrow. Have a wonderful day and may God bless you!

Prayer for Blessings in the Year Ahead

Father, Thank you for your great love and blessing over our lives. Thank you that your favor has no end, but it lasts for our entire lifetime. Forgive us for sometimes forgetting that you are intimately acquainted with all of our ways, that you know what concerns us, and you cover us as with a shield. We ask that we would walk in your blessing and goodness today. That your face would shine on us. That you would open the right doors for our lives and for our loved ones, that you would close the wrong doors and protect us from those we need to walk away from. Establish the work of our hands and bring to fulfillment all that you have given us to do in these days. We pray that you would make our way purposeful and our footsteps firm out of your goodness and love. Give us a heart of wisdom to hear your voice, and make us strong by your huge favor and grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Source:    10 New Year's Prayers for 2021 - Faith, Hope and Blessings for New Year

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

Thanks for coming today, Friends! 

If Jesus Isn't Enough.....

I saw the following on a church sign a few days ago and want to share it with you.

If Jesus isn't enough, then nothing will ever be enough.

Have You Ever...?

Have you ever felt discouraged at the beginning of a New Year because there is so much to get caught up on?

In todays story we find a lady by the name of Carol Kukendall as she comptemplates the new year, probably very much the way we do or have at sometime or another and still have left over responsibilities that we cannot avoid. 

Source: Encouragement for the New Year | Guideposts                              

 Read on....

Encouragement for the New Year

Leave your worries and fears in God's loving and capable hands.

by Carol Kuykendall

“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.” Exodus 23:20 (NIV)

I sometimes think New Year’s Day comes at the wrong time of year. I’m usually facing a bunch of tasks left over from the old year, like taking down the Christmas tree and putting away all the decorations, writing thank-you notes and dealing with decisions about what to do with the stack of Christmas cards. Throw them away? Save the ones with pictures? Check the addresses? Then there’s the thought of trying to catch up with all the work I put off during the holidays. I’m behind before the New Year even starts.

“Who can think about new beginnings or inspirational goals in the midst of old concerns?” I asked my lawyer-husband Lynn as he came in the door after a quick trip to the office to complete a couple of year-end responsibilities.

“Let me show you a gift I just received,” he said, pulling an attractively wrapped package out of his briefcase. On it was a card: “To Lynn. May this gift encourage you in the coming year.” It was signed by a friend in his Bible study group.

Lynn tore off the paper and lifted out a beautifully framed message, penned by a professional calligrapher. The message read:

          Lynn,

         Trust Me. I have everything under control.

                    Jesus

He set the frame down amidst the clutter on the kitchen counter so I could see that simple message as I went about my tasks. Slowly those words began to change my frame of mind. If I needed something to help me carry my old concerns into the New Year, I’d just found it … the determination to face each day’s concerns, trusting in the words of this promise from the Source of all comfort and strength.

Father, each day in this new year, please help me remember that You are in control of everything.

🙏

As we look ahead to this new year, may we remember that Jesus does have everything under his control, even when it doesn't look like it to us.

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Have a blesse day!

  

A Brand New Year

It is a brand new year. And a brand new day as I write todays blog. For  those of us that did not want a new administration in Washington and believe our freedoms are now at risk greater than ever, I thought that we needed a scripture from God's word to mediate on today as we contemplate on the coming year. The one I chose fits with Psalm 119:11 where David wrote, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against thee."

The Psalmist David loved God with a deep biding love and trust that no matter how sinful he was, or what he went through, he trusted his Maker. He had had his share of enemies that could take his very life, if God allowed them. But they couldn't take his trust in God and the very things in his heart that he had hid there.

Nor should we allow our enemies take what God has given us, His Word. But place it in our own hearts, safe from all that might try.

In Isiah 43:14-19 we find the same hope for our situation as that of the Children of Israel that God had given them so long ago.

14 Thus saith the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships.

15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

16 Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;

17 Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow.

18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Indeed, a sinful generation of his people had hardly deserved God's blessing and yet His love covered their sin just as he does our today for those that know him. 

Last year was  a painful one for many people. Not only because of Covid-19 and all it was about. But we have heard the grumblings and worse, of angry people, old and young, rich and poor, on all levels around us. 

But that year is gone. Will God fulfill his promise of "doing a new thing" for us, this year? I don't know. 

But here we find that God will bring down those that are against Him, and provide for those that are for Him. And yes, he will do those things for us, in His own time

He is up to something for sure. And just as he promised the Israelites, he will do a new thing for you and I when he deems it to be. 

How can we know that for sure? Because of what Malachi 3:6 tells us:

"I am the Lord, and I change not...."

He will do for us, what he did for them. No matter what disease may hit us. No matter who claims Washington as their right to lead our  government. 

Our hope is in Him alone because just as the Psalmist, and Isaiah and all of the people that have followed after God's heart, he will save and keep us until our time comes to no longer be on earth. 

He is up to something, and He will do a new thing. It is a promise we can take to our bank of heavenly treasure where nothing can corrupt or steal it. Mathew 6:1921. 

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. May God give you his perfect peace today and every day!

Happy New Year!

 

Jesus Is Lord!!!!!

A Happy New Year?

 

You are probably wondering why I have the above graphic on todays post. Above the year 2020  are the words, Happy New Year. It may have started that way but as we know, it has been a hard one for many people in the United States and the world and so I thought though that we might take a trip down the memory lane of this year and see what what did go on as January 2020 evolved in to December 2020, one month at a time. 

January

8:The American Cancer Society reports a 2.2% drop in the cancer death rate between 2016 and 2017, the largest single-year decline in mortality for this disease ever recorded in the U.S.^[8][9]

 30: COVID-19 pandemic: The CDC confirms the first case of human-to-human transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the U.S.^[29]

 February  

25:Amazon opens its first cashierless grocery store, located in Seattle.^[50]

29:COVID-19 pandemic: The first death from COVID-19 in the U.S. is reported by officials in Washington state, as the total number of cases nationwide reaches 66.^[55]

March

13:President Trump declares a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, freeing up $50 billion in disaster relief funds.^[85

22:The USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) hospital ship is announced to be deployed to New York. The USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) is to be deployed to Los Angeles.^[107]

April:

03: COVID-19 pandemic: The CDC recommends all citizens consider wearing cloth or fabric face coverings in public.^[132

24: President Trump signs a $483 billion bill to rescue small businesses.^[159]

May

27:George Floyd protests: Protests in Minneapolis turn violent as activists call for murder charges against the police officers involved in George Floyd's death.^[190][191]

30:The first crewed flight of the SpaceX Dragon 2 (initially scheduled for May 27 but delayed due to weather) is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first crewed spacecraft to launch from U.S. soil since 2011.^[200]

June

09: HBO Max removes Gone with the Wind from its streaming service, amid concerns over "ethnic and racial prejudices" depicted in the 1939 movie.^[215] HBO reinstates the film on June 25, alongside a disclaimer saying it "denies the horrors of slavery".^[216]

12: The Minneapolis City Council votes unanimously to disband the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a "community" safety department, however it is prevented from doing so by the city charter.^[219]

July

04: The 2020 Salute to America Independence Day event is held in Washington, D.C.^[240]

12:18 sailors are injured by an explosion and fire on the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego, California.^[247]

August

09: Pr:esident Trump is escorted from a news briefing by the Secret Service following a shooting outside the White House, after which a 51-year-old male suspect is taken to hospital.^[276]

11: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden names Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential nominee, the first black woman to serve in the role.^[277]

September:

09: President Donald Trump is nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian lawmaker for his role in facilitating the Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement.^[308]

18: The death of long-serving judge and women's rights advocate, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at the age of 87, leaves an empty seat on the Supreme Court. President Trump says he will choose a woman to fill the seat.^[317]

October

01: COVID-19 pandemic in Washington, D.C. – The White House COVID-19 outbreak is first announced, as both President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump test positive for COVID-19 and enter quarantine. Counselors to the President Hope Hicks and Kellyanne Conway and several other White House staffers, along with multiple members of Congress, also tested positive.^[331]

02: The national debt surpasses $27 trillion for the first time.^[335]

November:

14:  2020 United States election protests: In Washington, D.C., thousands of protesters march to support President Trump and his claims of voter fraud in the presidential election.^[432]

15 SpaceX Crew-1 mission launches from Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, Florida. The first operational mission of the SpaceX crew dragon.^{[citation needed]}

^December

 11: The Food and Drug Administration authorizes the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. This is the first COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized for emergency use in the United States.^[577]

29: The statue of Abraham Lincoln is removed in Boston.^[62

These statics are provided by: 2020 in the United States - Wikipedia

Two items dominated the year. They are of course, the Presidential Election, and Covid-19 epidemic. And while there was some good things that happened this year, I was hard pressed to find many that came to us as good news. I did try to list one good item in each month. But I know that some may not agree with me on what they are, and that is ok. My intent was just to look back on the year to recall what has happened.

What will 2021 bring? Perhaps a great party this evening. Perhaps a tradegy for some that will drink too much and end up in an accident. But then, what of the New Year with a new presidential administration. And will we ever get beyond this covid epidemic? Some think so. Many don't. The answers to these questions are, we just don't know. Who knows what else may come. Good or bad, it is all in the hand of Almighty God.

Only God knows. And it is He that we must trust to get us through it. One day, and month at a time. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

    and lean not on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways submit to him,

    and he will make your paths straight.[a]

Proverbs 3:5-6

Thanks for stopping by today, Friends. Have a great New Years Eve, and stay safe. God Bless you!

3

"i Am The Light Of The World...."

 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12

Christmas is over for yet another year. It seems to me that we go through all the preparations for it, and while we may attend or host several parties, dinners, and perhaps potlucks at this time of year, once the 25th comes, and the unwrapping of gifts and dinner that day is over with well....it seems sort of a let down My son's father-in-law alluded to that on Christmas Eve after we had exchanged gifts that evening at my son's home.

I myself think its true. At the end of the day, we are left with wrapping paper waste, hopefully dishes that have been washed and put away, and maybe a few new gadgets or other gifts that we received and maybe we are bored with by now.

Our thoughts go to thinking about the New Year celebrations we will take part in, in those next few days

And perhaps the taking down of the Christmas tree and other decorations that we will put away for another year.

The one thing I always enjoy looking at when ever we go out in the evening, are the homes that are lit up during this season. Slowly each will disappear and won't come out again until next year. And to me, that is sad.

The world will grow a bit darker without them, and may seem a bit more dreary.

And I wonder why that is? Because we have just celebrated the really most wonderful time of year. The birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. It is He who came to light up the world, not some artificial colored lights that make our homes more beautiful for a short time.

Are we placing too much on the things of this world, instead of who came to us from Heaven?  Could be, I imagine. Even though during this time, we have attended special services at church etc, how quickly do our thoughts race ahead to what is next.

Now don't get me wrong. I enjoy everything about the holiday as well as anyone else. But, still there is always that sense of let down after it is over with.

If we truly believe that Jesus is the Light of the world, we should never feel let down because even when we are done with all the traditions of Christmas and they are gone until next year, Jesus is still there, waiting for us to continue our relationship with Him. To worship and thank Him that he was willing to come from His home on high, to spend each day of our lives with a sinful bunch of people that sometimes more often then not, forget that He is the most important part of our Christmas celebrations. And know that His light  will never go away nor will it be blown out by our insufficient breath to stop Him from loving us. 

Thanks for joining me today, Friends. God bless you and your loved ones!