A NEW BEGINNING

Each day, the Lord our God gives us a new beginning. Each year, we start the calendar again, with the same birthdays, Holidays, and vacations. What’s new about it? - Our renewed attitude, our new goals, our new commitment, our newly redeemed soul. When we ask the Lord God to make us a new person, totally dedicated to Him, ready to take our place as Watcher on the Wall, ready to claim all of Christ’s promises, our soul is redeemed and we are new people in an all new year. Will challenges happen? - OF COURSE THEY WILL! Who do we think we are that trials will not cross our path? Even Jesus Christ had his temptations, trial, and cross. Are we better than the Son of God that we would expect that each day would unfold before us with no problems to solve or no challenges that would need our complete dependence on God? How arrogant! Testing our character and strengthening our resolve are the basic elements of life, which cause us to grow and prosper. Blessed be the name of the Lord for He has seen our weakness and has provided obstacles for us to climb and therefore strengthen us for His service. Let us pray for His presence, strength, discernment, and guidance in this new and challenging year:

“Oh strong and faithful God, we praise your name in everything we do, in every experience of our days. May your Spirit make its home in our heart this year, at this very time. Some days will be to our liking and our desire, other days will be a mystery to us and we’ll feel we, or you, have failed. We ask that you never leave our side as we walk our path. We know when you are not seen, it is because we have cast our gaze away from you, not that you have ever taken your eye from us for even one moment. Praise be the name of the Lord every day, in every way. May our heart be warmed daily in the glow of your fire divine. We vow to love you and praise you through the good times and the bad, in sickness and in health, for we know we live in an unstable world, within the stability of your love. Forgive us when we grow weak and blame you for our problems, for, in our heart, we know you want only good for your children. Sometimes we are the author of our own difficulties and other situations are created by the world in which we live. We pray for the health of our loved ones and that a peace may rain down on them with healing waters. We know you formed this world Father. We also know you set Heaven in place. Heaven is “up,” perhaps just a few inches above the chaos of this world. May we rise above the world’s anxiety and anger and illness, find your Garden again this year, and vow to live there in your love. From your home-on-earth we will be able to be Watchers, and guard the wall as you asked of us. In the name of, and by the power of your son, the great healer, Jesus the Christ, we pray. Amen”
Doris
“Copyright 2009 Doris Gaines Rapp, Ph.D.”
“God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”