What is it about a new year that causes such evaluation and a push to pursue goals? I suppose it's a good thing to step back and get perspective about life and what it is we are here for. My mind has certainly been thinking about such things since January 1st. It's been good to think about a new year and how I desire to trust God. There are always things to worry about and areas that need attention and growth.
I was reading my Bible the other morning and thinking about this year and areas I want to grow in and (as God would have it) I read 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 in my reading through the Bible plan. It says, "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
I am challenged by this! Do I really believe that God's grace is sufficient for me? Do I believe that His power is made perfect in weakness? If I did then I would boast gladly about my weaknesses and find contentment and strength! What a great promise! This is so opposite of the world we live in where we elevate self and encourage pride of man and work so hard to show ourselves strong and sufficient!
So as I think about all my fears, anxieties, goals, and desires for 2010 I am claiming and choosing to believe 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. My sufficiency comes from God, nowhere else, and I will rely on His grace alone!
I was also encouraged along these same lines in a book I was reading yesterday. It says this:
"Unless we release our fears and desires and trust God's best plans for our home and our family, we will labor in vain. In the essay "Parenthood and the Gift of Children," Johann Arnold writes that prospective parents come to "realize what an awe-inspiring responsibility it is to bring a child into the world, a responsibility that only grows with the child - and [they] will sense that they are too weak and sinful to bring up even one child in their own strength." But Arnold believes this "recognition of inadequacy" should not lead couples to despair. "It should make us realize how dependant we are on grace. Only the adult who stands like a child before the grace of God is fit to raise a child."
May this be a year that we all depend on grace!
