On January 1, 2009, if someone had told me Nate wouldn’t be with us on January 1, 2010 because cancer would kill him before then, I wouldn’t have believed it.
In February of 2009, if someone had told me Linnea and Adam would be delivering a new baby in February of 2010, I wouldn’t have believed it.
In April of 2009, if someone had told me Katy and Hans would be delivering twins in April of 2010, I wouldn’t have believed it.
What might we not know now, on the last day of 2009, that will take place by the last day of 2010? What will happen by then that today we “wouldn’t believe”?
This morning I spent time thinking about God’s omniscience. He knows it all, what will happen tonight, tomorrow and everything between now and next New Year’s Eve. God is superior to us in assessing every situation and in knowing what to do… ahead of time. He knows the specific negatives coming to each of us in 2010, whether by his wise design, by our own sin, or by Satan’s wicked plans. He also knows the positives coming, such as helpful employment, weddings, answers to prayer, pay raises, improved relationships, healings, new babies. Because God is all-knowing, I’ve often asked him to prepare me for whatever is ahead. I believe he did a great job answering that prayer ahead of Nate’s cancer diagnosis. Learning about it was a forceful blow, but when we looked back, we saw how he’d prepared us.
I’m still praying the same prayer, that God will prepare me (and others) for whatever is coming. He lets us in on some things well ahead of time, those things we can put on a calendar like graduations, house closings, birthdays, job interviews. But by Christmas of 2010, every calendar square will have been full of something. Only God knows those somethings as we stand at the beginning of the next 365 days.
I’ve chosen a verse to hang as a banner over the year 2010. It’s God’s invitation to prayer found in the Old Testament in Jeremiah 33:3. “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3)
That sounds pretty good to me and is about as close to being prepared for the future as I can be. There isn’t anyone more able to get me ready than God himself, and with this verse coaxing me to talk to him, even to ask questions, and with his promise to answer me, I’ll be calling to him a great deal.
The year stretches in front of us all, and I’m excited to find out what those “great and mighty things” are, the ones God has assured me he will tell me. By the last day of 2010, I have confidence I’ll be able to look back and say, “I was prepared, and it was God who did it.”
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)
Earlier this evening Erwin and I prayed in the same vein as you have just written, acknowledging the omniscience and sovreignty of God. We cast ourselves upon His mercy and grace. We asked Him to protect and keep us and our family from evil, danger, harm, accident and illness, knowing that all of these possibilities assault the human race daily. We prayed this knowing that His plan for us is already determined. But we asked that He would prepare us for what lies ahead and keep us faithful. And we’ll also be looking for those “great and mighty things” He has planned. You will continue to be in our thoughts and prayers as you walk through 2010 and adjust to your new role and all the “firsts.”
This is the passage God has given me to pray every morning in 2010: “O Lord, cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for I trust in You. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you. Deliver me, O, Lord, from my enemies, for I take shelter in You. Teach me to do Your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.” Psalm 143:8-10
I’ve had 3 negative “surprises” in the past month and a half that have been lessons in complete trust. Whether caused by me or others or circumstances God allows, my biggest challenge is resting in the arms of the One who promised to care for me. We can truthfully say Happy New Year because we are His and none of the future will be a “surprise” to Him.
Lord, those of us reading this blog join cyber hands to unfurl Margaret’s banner and call out to You on her behalf, even as Rebecca has done first thing. As Margaret continues to offer up this spiritual sacrifice of worship, give her the pen of a ready writer. Make her heart overflow with good themes as she addresses her verses to the King. Give her songs in the night, even those nights that only other widows can hear the tune. We bring her and her children before Your throne, and ask that You would measure out mercy and grace and help according to their need. Send Your Word and heal them. Surprise them with joy. We ask these things in confidence because we ask in accordance with Your Word. Amen and so be it.
Absolutely, So Be It, and Amen !
There is nothing so energizing, so faith-building, so soul-stirring, nor so self-deprecating as standing on the threshold of a new year…a new decade…and looking to God, with our families and our little ones, our jobs, our homes, our very foundations and saying once more, with more meaning than it had last year..”Thy will be done.” And then adding..”Lord, we want your will whether we want it or not.” Because He knows how wayward and fickle are our hearts. And how fragile is our ability to keep any promise we make. But what we know is how sturdy is our faith because of His unchanging nature. And how immoveable is His Word once He speaks and how He moves heaven and hell to bring to pass the great and mighty things He has said. We are covered in all of this, and secure, despite the shaky shoreline of emotional upheavals and faith-tottering experiences. He is our Rock. And He has 2010 just as firmly in hand as He had 2009.
This blog has given cause to pause and meditate. The responses have been just as powerful as your blog itself. I love this cyberspace community of praying believers and find encouragement and blessings everytime I read. It is powerful.
Hi Margaret,
I read your blog everyday and when I happened to read this days I was out of town and reading it from my cell phone. Ever since I have wanted to come back and leave a comment on it. Before Christmas my Aunt Sandi and I were working together on a digital memory book we were making of my Uncle Bill for her to have printed and give to her children for Christmas. On each page we would try to put a quote or a passage of scripture that applied and was meaningful in some way. On one page we put Jeremiah 33:3 which happens to be my Uncle Bill’s favorite verse. I was excited to see that you too, have found significance in this same verse, since it has so much meaning to my Uncle Bill. I was not really familiar with the verse before working on the book with Aunt Sandi on the book so now too, the verse has significance to me. Thanks for posting your blog so faithfully every day, I enjoy reading it and use it to help me reflect and talk to God on times in my life that may relate to your passages in any way.