The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. Lamentations 3:22-25
His mercies are new every morning year after year. Moving into a New Year means looking back before moving forward. Looking back with a glance, like checking a rear view mirror. Taking a look back, more than a glance can make us miss what is in front of us, but avoiding taking that look can make us miss really important pieces of moving into the new. Without effort we remember the trials and the trauma of our lives and of a year, it is human nature. We don’t even have to look back to remember the trials and trauma, they just stay with us. Even when we block it out, it stays with us like a scar.
Forgetting to remember, and avoiding that look back; we miss the miracles and the mercy, we miss the grace that was there the whole time. We don’t miss the miracles, mercy and faithfulness of God because He wasn’t there. We miss it because we weren’t looking, and don’t remember. Our body and subconscious remember the trials and trauma; training our mind to remember the rest of the story is what helps us move into new times.
If we stop short and get stuck in the trial and trauma, we miss the goodness of God. When we seek Him we can always find Him, experience His love, goodness, and faithfulness. Our part is to look for Him, wait for Him and then we can see His goodness and faithfulness. Pausing to look and remember where He was and how He took us through the trial is what brings us a new perspective.
I thought last year was a blah year, until we sat down as a family and recounted our year on New Year’s Eve. Once we began recounting our year, we could see the beauty. We could remember where God was and see his goodness and mercy there every single day. I honestly can’t even remember why I thought the year was blah. Maybe it’s just my default, maybe it’s the default of our human minds. As soon as I took a minute to remember the Truth of 2022 there was amazing love, goodness and mercy, provision and faithfulness, every day, all year round. If we hadn’t “counted our blessings” we would have miscalculated.
We see in scripture God saying remember remember remember. He is calling us to remember how he saved us, how He provided, how he set us free. If we never experience darkness do we notice when light comes. If we never go through trials, do we notice when relief comes?
Keeping our eyes on Jesus, is like watching for the sun rise every morning. It’s going to happen, the sun will rise, Jesus is there every single day whether we notice or not. The sun rises after the dark and moonlit nights, just the same. The sun rises no matter how we lived the day before, or live from this day forward. God never misses a day, but we can miss Him. Look for Him. Wait for Him. Remember Him.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies are new every morning…. Year after year.
“At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
