Sunday, January 1, 2012

Great Expectations

The year of 2011 was an interesting year for us to say the least.  My family experienced joyful times, quiet times, trying times, times of sorrow and heartache. We walked a road that we never thought we would traverse and since have been learning how to heal.

Several years ago, God led me through a time teaching me trust.  Not in trusting myself or others but trusting in Him alone. Trust is that reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety of a person or thing.  He was leading me to have confidence in Him and put my reliance on Him.   Oh how frustrated I got when that topic was always being taught or talked about.  I did not want to hear those words again and even wanted to avoid a conference for women because I “knew” the topic would be on that word.  In my mind I threatened to throw marshmallows at the speaker if she brought it up.  Yes she did and no, I didn’t but I did giggle when it happened.

Surely I had trusting God down since I had given my heart to him.  Surely I did, right?  Not so much.  God knew what was coming my way and knew I had to fully trust Him to carry me through.  I would not be able to rely on family, friends, or other Christian acquaintances to scoop me up and carry me across the valley. Oh I wanted them too! I looked for them too! I even wrongly, expected them too! I placed a burden on their shoulders without even letting them know.  I got confused, hurt and even got to the point of understanding why people walk away from the local fellowship of the church.  I realized how much we can hurt each other more deeply when we don’t fully understand what has taken place. Through this experience I am learning even more what it means to encourage those that are hurting and not push them down further but instead walk with them on this journey to freedom.

At the beginning of 2011, God placed a verse before me to memorize.  I never knew how many times throughout the year I would recall Psalms 65:11 “You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.”  Through this trying year I learned to rest on God’s integrity, His Strength and His ability.  I can look back on the paths we walked in 2011 and although I remember the pain of each step I can now see the overflow of abundance.  Without my feet sounding like a thud on those hardened pathways some of the great things that are occurring now might have been slower in happening or might not have happened at all.  With God’s grace and peace I can now be thankful for the paths we walked this past year.

Now as I look forward to 2012 I don’t have a clue what paths I will walk down but I do it expectantly.

 Just today I read 1 Peter 1:3-9:

 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

I guess the part that really caught my eye was “now we live with great expectation.”  What a way to look at the calendar of 2012!  With great expectations!

According to Dictionary.com, Expectations is the act or state of looking forward or anticipating.

Excitedly I began to think about what I might be expecting in this new year and came up with a list. So here are a few of my expectations.

To live unclenched. (I’ll explain this in another post)

To let joy overflow.

To get my fingers and toes dirty by digging into the WORD more.

To follow a dream that I have let slip by the wayside.

To live up to my inheritance.

2011 almost zapped me but I am determined to not look back over that year with heartache but rather to glance back and see the overflowing abundance that God gave to me.  Now I know that I can be truly glad for there is wonderful joy ahead and it is more precious that gold.

 So what are you looking forward to, anticipating in 2012?


Out of the Shadows,
Cynthia

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