Grateful for New Beginnings…

Happy New Year, friends!! Do you love a new week? A new month? A new year? I do!! There is something about a fresh start that just makes me happy. This morning in the sermon it was shared that God loves new beginnings, too! That made me smile. God created us in His image, no wonder we love fresh starts!!

After all, His Word tells us that…

His mercies are new every morning!! {Lamentations 3:23}

He is doing a new thing! {Isaiah 43:19}

We are new creations in Him! {2 Cor. 5:17}

The old is gone, the new has come! {2 Cor. 5:17}

He puts a new song in our mouths! {Psalm 40:3}

There is just something about knowing and trusting and believing that He can truly make all things new. Doesn’t that give you hope and courage? I am so thankful for His Word and the promises that He gives us in it.

The hope and assurance that God gives me from His Word is one of the main reasons I want to make a bigger effort at hiding His Word in my heart with the start of this New Year! I need more of Him in every aspect of my life!! And, when I have His Word on the tip of my tongue and on the forefront of my mind, I am much more at peace.

Going along with my Word & Theme for 2011 {rest} and also wanting to hide God’s Word in my heart even more, I have found a verse that I want to be my prayer for the year! I actually already have it memorized. 🙂 And, as you know, I love praying the Scriptures!! So, when I read this verse, I knew God gave it to me just at the right moment. (This is my first Siesta Scripture Memory Team verse, too!)

“May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.” Psalm 33:22

Isn’t that just beautiful and perfect and wonderful? 🙂 It is a different kind of rest…it’s not the kind of rest where I’m doing the rest, it’s asking for God’s love to rest on me. Even better, I think.

For my longer passage of Scripture that I will be memorizing, for the Mega Memory Month, I have chosen portions of Psalm 91. I would like to eventually memorize the whole Psalm, but am not going to set myself up for the failure of doing it in just one month. 🙂 I had a different passage chosen (from Philippians) but I really wanted to find something with REST in it to aid in my focus and prayers about resting in Him. The beginning of Psalm 91 is perfect!!

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” Psalm 91:1-4

I love that image of being under His wings and resting in His shadow.

When I dwell on His Word and His promises, it is so much easier for me to rest. While I’m counting my blessings this week, God’s Word is one of the biggest.

Many, many blessings…
#1266 ~ 1279

• God’s Word
• Starting the Bible in 90 Days TODAY!
• 2 of my favorite songs in worship today
• a fun new year with the kids and our friends
• Happy New Year cake
• watching my hubby love playing the new Wii (I’m wondering exactly who we bought this for! ha!)
• watching the kids and hubby compete ~ fun!
• enjoying Wii Fit Plus myself ~ please pray I can keep up this exercise!!
• a fun lunch date with the Hearts of Christ missionaries, I helped them start a blog! (This is who I went to Belize with!)
• another fun brunch date with my dear friend, Rebecca, and fun thrift store shopping after breakfast!
• a wonderful Nana & Papa to keep my kids for those fun lunch dates
• new mercies
• new beginnings
• hiding God’s Word in my heart