Beginning a New Year

This posting is an edited version of an article written by Pastor Jim Steiner of The Summit Church, Boise, ID. Jim is also a LLC Mentor Pastor with ABC of the Northwest. These are good words for the start of 2010:

2009 was a very challenging year, and for many of us, we are glad to see it go. But I must say this last year was also a year of watching God be God in the midst of so many things that were out of our control.

It is at times like these when all I could do was remember and remind others of God's promises. It was Jesus who said not to worry but to trust a Father who knows what we need and promises to take care of us. It is God who says that "He will never leave us or forsake us." (Hebrews 13:5)

It has been a comfort and assurance to me that God has allowed me to live some life with Him. Maybe that is the greatest blessing of age in that we have lived to see God's faithfulness. I have been through it and know that God is on the other side. Hopelessness threatened to crowd out hope, and despair to overcome faith. But God! He is the one who proved that He is God and answered in ways that now seem so simple and yet completely miraculous.

It was God who pulled back the curtain on hardships to let us see the "behind the scene" working for our good. It was God who assured us in the midst of this great grace and peace we have received in Jesus, we can exult in tribulation. God declares through Paul, "we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance proven character, and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:1-5)

God knows that in the end, proven character with hope is far more valuable than anything we had to give up to get it. I must confess that the greatest times of spiritual growth in my life have come in and through the hard places. It was during these times that I have been pressed to God and have found Him to be all that He says that He is. He is a loving Father who is always doing the best for us and He is always to be trusted.

So we begin a new year. We begin with the same promises and the same God who made those promises that we ended with in 2009. I am confident in this one thing. That whatever 2010 holds, God is still God! His promises are true and He is faithful to perform them. God cares deeply and is always working for our good. He never wastes our pain and has a wonderful plan for our life and eternity with Him to come.