God’s Help From Old Year To New

God’s Help from Old Year to New

GOD is good, a hiding place in tough times. He recognizes and welcomes anyone looking for help, no matter how desperate the trouble. But cozy islands of escape He wipes right off the map.

Nahum 1:7-8 (THE MESSAGE)

If you could create a perfect end to your year, what would that be? Sitting by a cozy fire, playing puzzles and games, or maybe spending time outside having snowball fights and sleigh rides? The perfect end to the year is also a great time to seek God for the year to come. Has reading about the Amish had an impact on you? Is your relationship with God closer? Have you made an attempt to put aside some of the world’s ways to follow God’s ways more faithfully?

Take a few moments and write down any changes you may already have made. Are there goals you would still like to work toward in the coming year?

[The Amish] dress differently and travel differently, but their goals are essentially the same as the goals of most other people: to live happily in this life and to do the same in the next life. They just happen to have chosen a road less traveled to reach their goals.

Their beliefs tell them that cars and other modern gadgets won’t help them find happiness or salvation, but Amish life isn’t about what they don’t have. Instead, it’s about what they do have. They have strong Christian faiths, strong families and communities, and their lives aren’t really as simple as they may appear. . . . Amish lives still focus on God, family, and hard work, but their lives are definitely not the same as they were in the 1700s, as some writers like to romanticize.

You may have discovered that you’re more like an Amish person than you thought, and when you seek God, He will help with faith, family, and community. He is the One who brings peace. He can keep us from the distractions of the world and guide us in focusing on simplicity of the heart. Seek Him faithfully in the year to come, and in Him you will find help.

Dear heavenly Father, thank You for the year that has finished, and for the year to come. I can face the future knowing You are already there.