Not a Word for 2019 but a Promise

Do you ever marvel at people who exude joy even when they are in difficult circumstances?  On January 1, 2019, the Lord gave me perspective about this with a promise...

God Promises to Do Something New

For I am about to do something new. 

See, I have already begun! 

Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. 

I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Isaiah 43:19

To add a little context to why I believe the Lord gave me this particular promise for 2019 rather than a specific word, head over to my post,  A Time to Reflect, where I share the reasons why 2018 was one of my least favorite years.  Hard to believe when it was the year that my second grandchild was born...

But, if I'm being transparent, it was just a hard year.  I started out the year with a flu-like sickness that had me with a high fever for an entire week!  And then I seemed to be dealing with one health situation after the other not to mention my husband's five day hospitalization!  Mixed in with that, I lost faith in close friendships, as those that I once had, seemed to just fade away, despite my best efforts...

All these things combined, I closed out 2018 with extremely high anxiety that was almost paralyzing.

But then January 1, 2019 happened and before I was barely even awake, I truly felt the Lord spoke that verse from Isaiah over me which filled me with expectant hope for 2019.

God's Promise led me Outside of My Comfort Zone

I am not one for New Year's Resolutions, but I did set a goal for myself.  To do something outside of my comfort zone, if possible, each and every day.  What better time to start doing something outside of my comfort zone, but New Year's morning. Wait for it, going out to breakfast was actually something outside of my comfort zone and I purposed to do just that.  You might be like, Karen really?!?  lol.  I've had one too many bouts of food poisoning and it just seems like breakfast food is ripe for it.  I know!  I know!  It's silly.  We headed to IHOP, but we got a late start and it was jam packed with probably at least an hour wait, and I was STARVING!  We left there with no real plan.  It was almost 11 a.m. and most places probably would stop serving breakfast at any moment.  We were almost home and I saw this restaurant "Lauren"s", a restaurant that I've driven by countless times, but again, due to comfort zone issues, I don't like to try mom and pop places, but tend to stick with chains.  I know!  I know!  More silliness.  We went inside and found out they serve breakfast all day!  The patrons were all families and older people.  Our waitress was super nice and reminded me of Blanche from the Golden Girls.  Haha.  My pancakes and bacon were delicious!  AND they have a dinner menu that has many of the foods I like!

The moral of the story.  Going outside of my comfort zone yielded a new place to go for breakfast and/or dinner and get this, serves COMFORT FOOD!!   lol.   ;-)

At that time I truly believed that the Lord had already begun to make a pathway through my wilderness.  Indeed, I see it!

To further substantiate His promise to me, during my reading that evening in Deuteronomy 1, I was encouraged further...

God Promise in the Valley

“The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain.  Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.  See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’...

The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’" 

Deuteronomy 1:6-8, 30-33

Sound familiar.  We would much rather stay and enjoy the mountaintop experience for as long as possible.  When everything is going good - health, relationships, finances.  But life isn't like that, is it?  Those of us who are marching on in age can attest to that.  lol.

But as the Lord promises, we can still have a mountaintop attitude even in the hill country, the low land, the valley...  For He has already gone before us and will fight for us there, just as He has done before.  For He is ever faithful.

I am definitely learning that the Lord never intends for us to go through anything alone.  He will never send us where He hasn't already gone.  He fully intends on being right there to help us, guide us and provide for us.  And most especially, He brings us to the hill country to show us our great need for Him, that we don't have to go it alone and to showcase His faithfulness.

Back to my friend's instagram post where she put her hope in the following verse for 2019...

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,

 according to the power at work within us

Ephesians 3:20

The only way we can truly experience this promise, is after spending time in the hill country of difficulty.  For joy is felt so much more abundantly after hardship.  There are profound blessings in the hill country, in the lowlands and in the valleys.

So you see, even in our difficulties, we ABSOLUTELY can hold on to the promise that the Lord has already begun to do something new and will make a way in the wilderness.  Yes! We will see it!  He will do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think!

So now as I reflect back on 2018, I do so with clarity and gratitude, seeing that I was never alone during my times in the wilderness of the hill country, and although the Lord has kept me in the hills for over a year now, I see clearly His desire to continually showcase His great love for me...

He is working!  I can see it now!

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, 

who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, 

will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

1 Peter 5:10

{For a Biblical encouragement to go outside of your comfort zone, please head over to my post, True Comfort is Found Outside Your  Comfort Zone which you can read HERE.}

The way to our promised land is through the hill country, the lowlands and the valleys.  But take heart!  He will move us to the mountaintop once again.  Now that's a promise!

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