The Mirror of the Word by C.E. White can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Word-Devotions-Reveal-Refine/dp/B0DFZS83C7  To learn more about this author and other words, visit https://cewhitebooks.com/

“Do not call to mind the former things or consider things of the past. Behold, I am going to do something new, now it will spring up; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”

—Isaiah 43:18–19

In the new year, our focus is usually on how we can make this year better than the last. This pressure sometimes brings more discouragement in our circumstances than hope for our future. It can remind us how far we are from where we want to be rather than motivating us to try and get there.

But we can take heart—God is always doing a new thing in a new way—something that we never could have expected.

When Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery and he was falsely imprisoned, he didn’t know that God was doing a dramatic new thing and saving nations from starvation. But he was faithful with the life he’d been given.

When Ruth’s husband, brother–in–law, and father–in–law died and she left all she knew to move to Israel and care for her mother–in–law, she didn’t know that God was doing a dramatic new thing by bringing her into the lineage of Jesus Christ. But she was faithful with the life she’d been given.

We might feel hopeless and abandoned in the lonely wilderness or the dry desert Isaiah mentions, but God is always making a way where there seems to be no way and quenching thirst when there’s no water in sight.

Instead of dwelling on the disappointments of the past, we can know God is doing a new thing in and around us. We can choose to live the life we’ve been given faithfully.

c8u78t55

Podcast: Play in new window | Download