It’s 2021, a year of Reset and Expectation, a year of truly finding your purpose and resetting goals. The door on last year has closed. The New Year has opened. It’s a time to reflect in joy and a time to look forward in peace. To think of what is to come in this year. What we shall make of it, and what might it make of us.

Change is a difficult thing in life to deal with, but the transition can be even more difficult.  However, emotional and spiritual health is dependent on being able to navigate through the transitions in life by letting go inwardly of what has come to pass to take hold of what is coming ahead.  We can do this better when we recognize that it is just another chapter in the story of our life.

As a book lover, my books are marked with highlights and underlined sections. I, like most of us, have tabs on our pages. In one book I read recently, I folded down the bottom corners of pages I wanted to come back to later so I could record my favorite quotes. The problem was when I got to the end of the book; there were about forty folded down pages!

When it comes to the story of my life, though, there are few pages I want to revisit. Highlighted sections are rare. I wouldn’t consider it a good read, and many chapters I’d like to remove altogether. This message is for someone who has had a bad chapter in 2020, be encouraged; it is a chapter in our story, and God is turning the page. There is a new chapter opening for us, and I believe it’s full of restoration and resetting of what was shifted.

This time of year marks a new chapter in each of our lives. The pages are fresh and unmarked. We don’t know what lies ahead in our stories and can’t look at the back of the book to find out. This story is one we must live out word by word, line by line. The question is, when you turn the page to the next chapter of your life, does it fill you with anticipation or dread? Are you hopeful for what God will do in your life this year, or are you anxious?

Go ahead and allow God to turn the page; I know that in your mind, you are full of “what ifs” and “now what’s,” but Trust God; he has all of us, and He promised never to forsake us.  Jeremiah 29:11 keeps resonating in my spirit:

“I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster plans to bring about the future you hope for.^” (Good News Translation)

As your leader, know that I am always praying for you and your family!  I am decreeing over our lives that we have been chosen to be “Designated Survivors” to see the beginning of the best years of our lives.

Happy New Year

Pastor House