By Toni Ford
According to the Gregorian calendar, the year 2023 is coming to an end and a new year, 2024 begins. As we look back on this past year, I am sure each of you can think of both rewarding and challenging times that occurred over your life. We can also recall favorable and unfavorable events that took place in our nation as well as around the world. Some of those events are continuing, such as the war in Israel. So how do we approach this new year? As for me, redirecting my attention to God’s Word has been the best way for me to get realigned, re-centered and prepared for the new year.
I would like to encourage you to take time and read God’s Word and below you will find some verses to help you get started as you meditate on these truths. John 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” God is the Word; therefore, we can trust and know that His Word will never change because He is the only sure foundation we have in this world.
• Psalm 31:15. “My times are in your hands……” May I encourage each of us to begin this new year by surrendering to the Lord, our agendas, our times, our seasons, and then trust Him knowing that our times are in His hands. He is sovereign and His time is not our time but for those who have a history of walking with the Lord, you know that He is never late but always on time. Choose to stay in the present tense of God’s time, thus resulting in harmony with God’s time. Ask Him to bring your agenda into alignment with His time so that you stand in His victories. Let God bring your spirit, soul, and body into alignment with His divine time.
• Jeremiah 29:10-12. “This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” Recognize that God’s hand is on every circumstance of your life, as He gives you opportunity to learn and to express all of Himself in you.
• Isaiah 40:30-31. “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Be blessed to know the fullest dimensions of what God has placed inside you. Be blessed with knowing your identity in Christ for such a time as this. Understand what your Father designed you to do and how He wants to implement your gifts to accomplish that work with authenticity. He is mentoring and coaching you in the completeness of Christ’s likeness.
• Habakkuk 2:3. “For the vision is meant for its appointed time; it speaks of the end, and it does not lie. It may take a while, but wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.” God has appointed times, and we can trust that those times will come into fruition, for He does not lie.
• Acts 1:7. “He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” Anticipate His timing on your coming and going. Be blessed to see His fingerprints upon everything that concerns you. If it concerns you, it concerns Him.
• Lamentations 3: 21-23. “But in my mind I keep returning to something, something that gives me hope — that the grace of Adonai is not exhausted, that his compassion has not ended. On the contrary, they are new every morning! How great your faithfulness!” Be blessed today in God’s redeemed time. He made everything beautiful in His time.
May you be encouraged by His Word and may you receive a blessing over your time, timing and seasons as a new year begins.
If you would like me to join you in prayer, please e-mail me at tonif77@gmail.com. I would love to pray for you!