2015 - A Look Back

We love to look back, don't we?  You see it all over social media, 1) who looked at your profile most, 2) who liked your posts the most often or 3) who were your 'true' friends in 2015.  I'm thankful that I don't need Facebook to tell me who my true friends are.  And sometimes, it is a little scary how many of your posts some folks like or how often they look at your profile.   :-)


While we can learn from looking back, our focus needs to be looking forward.  May we take the lessons we learned and use them to make better choices and grow but let us not get bogged down in the 'if onlys' and 'what ifs'.  We have failed in the past, all of us because we are human.  The devil likes to use those failures to make us think we cannot succeed in the future.


The devil may have had our past but Jesus wants our future.  He can take the things that hurt us in the past and make us stronger in the future.  He can take the broken pieces and put together a beautiful picture of where we are going.  His abilities have no bounds.  We are limited by our very human existence but He does not have those limits.


While I've taken a moment to look back at 2015, I've seen the pain, the joy, the comfort, the distress, the heartache and the pleasure, but my focus is on tomorrow.  My focus is on all the tomorrows to come.  I do not know how many there will be but I know He holds each one in His hand.


I trust Him, I finally truly understand what that means.  I've trusted Him with many things in the past but that is not the same as a blanket 'I trust Him'.  When things happen that are our of my control, I say 'Lord, what do I do?' or 'Lord, I need You to handle this'.  In the past, I've said 'Lord, here is the problem and I think this is the best way to handle it'.  I'd work to make that way happen.  I wasn't trusting Him.  I was wanting Him to agree with me.


Now, deep down I still am happen when His way is like or similar to what I would have chosen but I'm at peace when it goes a different way entirely.  Peace, not a word I've used often in my life.  Yet in the last 6 months I've used it and felt it a lot.


Now there were times I took back control and the peace would go away but today I can say 'I may not like what today holds but I'm at peace that the One who made it is in control and He knows what is best.  I am at peace.'  Later today I may need to go back to Him and confess my desire to have control or it may not happen for a day or a week.  But as a human, I'm sure it will raise it's head again.  But until then I'm at peace.  Once I confess and ask for His help, I'll be at peace again. 


I never realized how frustrating and tiring it was not to have peace.  It sucks the life right out of you.  While I didn't realize it the devil knows it well and he fights to keep you away from peace.  Today, know that Jesus gives peace and He wants you to have it.  Begin 2016 with peace and knowing you are in His will.
I wrote the words above about trust, then a test came.  Not directly to me but impacting me none the less.  I trusted, I prayed, I asked others to pray.  God is faithful!