Friday...December 30, 2016

Hello everyone! I hope and pray that your day is going well and that you are truly feeling the presence of God beside you, as you walk throughout the day! As I’ve been sitting here in my office…spending some quiet moments alone with God, I began to think on what it would be like, to walk the roads of life alone…without God’s presence close by and you know what…I would never want to experience that. It’s bad enough that we go through the awful moments of pain and heartache; but to face those moments alone, would be so much more difficult to get through. Just imagine for one moment, what it would be like, if you were walking through the darkness alone…without the light of God’s presence to light the way?
 
You know…our circumstances can take us to a place, where we feel as though God has abandoned us and left us in the dark. I remember several times in my life, when I felt like this and sometimes those feelings can be so overwhelming; that you begin to tell yourself that there is no way that God’s presence could be there. There’s a couple things we need to remember though…if we are totally convinced that God has abandoned us and has left us in the dark; then who is carrying us through the night hours…to wake up to a new dawn…and how is it that we are able to find the strength, to walk through these troubled moments, even when the storm continues to surround us? I think the problem we face; is that we are too busy looking into the darkness; that we completely bypass the light; that reveals a God, who longs so much to walk us through these troubling times.
 
Even as my thoughts continued to think deeper on this; God began to show me that many times we dread a new day or a new year because we are too tightly focused on where our problems may lead us next. Just think, what it would be like, if we were to anticipate God’s presence, rather than our problems next move.
 
Today, as I’ve been thinking on everything that God has placed upon my heart and mind; I’m thinking that maybe we may also dread another New Year; because we are on the wrong path. Could it be that the negative thoughts and feelings that stem from our problems could have placed us on a path that only seems to reveal more hard times and moments of dormancy ahead?  
 
I remember a time, when the path before me, only seemed to reveal dark clouds and dead weeds along the way. Nothing seemed beautiful and every day, I seemed to wake up and dread more steps down this pathway; that seemed so dark and dismal; but a time did come, when I began to see that my thoughts and actions had definitely taken me down the wrong path. Once I caught wind of where I was headed, I began to look to God for His guidance, rather than following after my own problems, which brought me back, to a pathway that revealed life and beauty.
 
Today, can we say that our thoughts and actions are pointing us in the right direction, as we prepare to enter another New Year? Maybe it’s time to slow down and see where our thoughts are leading us. When we are willing to look beyond the darkness and anticipate the light of God’s presence; this is when I truly believe that we will find the path that God longs for us to follow, as we enter this New Year.
Have a great day & God bless!
It’s Always & Only Because of Him…
Diane
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