Running and New Beginnings '07

January always brings me an inspiring reminder that it is time for New Beginnings. It is a new year - the very first month of the year. A time to reflect on the passing of another year with the hope that the new year will be more bountiful, more productive, more sanctifying than the previous.

As I ponder on all that happened in 2006, I actually feel a sense of strength to have endured it. I also am full of gratitude to the Lord for the continual grace He has supplied. I truly know that had it not been for His grace and mercy, my steps would have faltered to the point of remaining down on the ground, unable to get up and press on. But when I look back and see my faltering steps where faith grew faint and zeal to fight waned before moments of despondency, I know He met me there and stayed there until my gaze returned fixed upon Him. He is my life. My all in all. My hope. He renews my life, regenerates my soul, refreshes my flesh. I am in a fight, a race, a battle. I can never stop and never quit. Rest yes, but turn back, never. My enemy is fierce. He would have me crushed and destroyed. I cling to the mercy and grace I find in Christ and His cross. I will not fear 2007. I will be a braveheart and lift up my cup of salvation and allow the Lord to fill it as He sees fit. He is my trustworthy Savior, my King, my Lord. He would not abandon me or forsake me. He knows my future and it is in His steadfast Hand while my very being is in His loving Heart. What can the enemy do to me? What can man do to me?

God is on my side. Nothing separates us. He is my keeper! He will keep me in the fight and in the race. I will keep fighting and keep running in the year of our Lord, 2007 and it will be a good year, a better year. I will always hope and believe that the best is yet to come. Why can't it when the years that go by, no matter how trying or difficult, if I see them as having come from my Heavenly Father's Hand to train me, to mold me, to conform my character into Christlikeness, then they are the ones that actually end up being the best years of my life. I will not have regrets or the urge to embrace forgetfulness on various pains that come to me in any given year. They are the things God uses to change me. They are the things that reveal how much changing I need. Oh that my heart would always be soft and warm and welcoming to such things without dismissing them as wasted purposeless and painful times. God makes all things new! And I will see new life birth from difficulty. And so I look to a new year, a life that has a fresh start - one that has been strengthened by things that took place in 2006. And I am hopeful!!!

As far as literal running goes, I ran 4 on Monday, 4 on Wednesday and 4 today. I'm hoping to get in 7 or 8 on Sunday. I am filled with gladness. His Holy Spirit is ever near.