As I flipped through my Instagram feed on New Year’s Eve, this Peanuts cartoon got my attention. The caption reads, “My favorite memory from 2018 was . . .”
My husband and I were on an unexpected, cross-country, road trip, so I thought this might just be an interesting conversation starter. Sure enough, it prompted an almost immediate response from him as he quickly identified several highlights and answered prayers that were a part of his 2018. The surprise came to me when it was my time to answer. As I flipped through the year in my mind, there was no stand-out highlight that I could identify.
In my mind, 2018 had been a hard year– one of taking a step, then the next one, and then one more after that. I felt tired from the daily grind that includes caring for a senior parent drifting farther away each day into the depths of dementia. While a long season of joblessness came to end for my husband, it had come in an unexpected package that left me still wondering what God was doing. Even though it had been a busy and fruitful year of ministry leading a morning women’s Bible study, I had ended the year feeling overwhelmed and tired, more ready for a break than I could ever remember.
There were certainly answered prayers and refreshing times sprinkled through the year, but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of one thing that I would really classify as memorable. It had been a year of more ordinary than extraordinary, more difficult than ease, more head down moving forward than I would have preferred. Realizing that much of the stuff of 2018 would continue walking with me into the new year ahead, a sense of dread and anger swept over me.
How would I begin 2019 with many things still unresolved?
Even before the New Year officially dawned, God faithfully began to answer my question. Through a short devotional reading, He showed me I needed a new perspective.
Psalm 113:1-2 instructed me,
“Praise the LORD. Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD. Let the name of the LORD be praised, both now and forevermore.”
I needed to view the days ahead through the lens of praise. The devotional writer called this a “hallelujah” perspective. What if I boasted in the LORD instead of circumstances? What if I replaced complaint, discontent, grumbling, and a feeling of entitlement with gratitude, trust, and humble praise?
A few days later, I came across another verse on my Twitter feed, God continuing to narrow the focus for my 2019 perspective.
Psalm 65:11 identifies,
“You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.”
These were the words I wanted to characterize 2019–
- Even as it begins with some of the same challenges, questions, and trials, leftover, unresolved from 2018.
- Even if it’s not the clean slate that I desired, expected, or thought I was due.
At the end of this year, I want to be able to say that I knew the Lord’s bounty- his reward, his gift, his plenty, his extravagant riches that are mine in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3).
Very quickly God put the pieces together. To find God’s bounty in 2019 will require a “Hallelujah” perspective.
So I begin the New Year prayerfully-
Father God, as 2019 begins, help me to keep my focus on You, Lord. I confess this won’t always be easy- I’m easily distracted by the things of this world. My eyes quickly divert to worthless things. Convict me of the attitudes and expectations that need to be tossed. Redirect my heart from what I think is lacking, hard, and not as I expected to see you at work in my life and in the world around me. Replace my complaints with praise and my doubt with trust. You alone are worthy of praise, so remind me to boast not in circumstances, people, or accomplishments but to boast in God. Help me Lord God to have a hallelujah perspective today and in the year ahead for I desire to live knowing every generous gift you have for me in 2019.
Therefore as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:31
Daily PICs for Life 