January 01 2021

Today, Friday January 1 – Do you ever get discouraged with being discouraged? Does it sometimes seem like the harder you try to do right, you experience even more failure? When you take three steps forward, next thing you know, you’ve gone back five steps? You are tired of New Year resolutions, which only make you more discouraged, because you didn’t keep them in the past? Jeremiah the prophet was pretty discouraged as he faced tremendous challenges and disappointments in both his personal life and in the world in which he lived. And he wrote a book of “Laments”. He is known as the weeping prophet! But right in the middle of this five chapter book, we read some of the most encouraging and uplifting words in all the Bible. Lamentations 3:20-26 “My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 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. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.” On this first day of a new year, I want you to take heart and know that God loves you and has made every provision for you to get back up and have hope that 2021 can be a year for you to experience the grace and love of God in a fresh and new way through His Son Jesus Christ! Plan on taking time every morning this year to meet with Him, in His Word and prayer, for a few minutes, and ask for His help as you face a new day! God bless!