Looking Back to Look Forward

I took time to muse over this past year's events before I began writing this post.  I even went back to my first post of 2015 and was in awe of what the Lord had me write there - please take a moment to read the following link before you continue with this last post of 2015 as it will help you understand a little more of what I write below:  A New Year, Trees, and Cross-Stitch


This was my new ornament for the Christmas tree this year and it spoke volumes.  It was so perfect for the year the Lord gave me in 2015.  Every season of life certainly tells a new story.  Whether we embrace what the Lord is doing or not, is up to us.  I learned to embrace the "stories" the Lord gave me this year.  Let me explain.

As I began 2015, I "hoped" the year would be a great one.  I prayed that the year would be less dramatic than the previous two had been.  We had experienced a lot of deaths and struggles in our families and I just wanted the Lord to allow things to be a bit "calmer" for a time.

But that was not HIS plan. 

He had me write in that first blog post in January 2015 about being willing to be a tree planted by the waters that would bring forth fruit in its season and would not wither.   I was that tree that was planted - little did I realize how He would force me to grow some fruit and not wither!!  I also can now look back on the cross-stitch pattern of my year and see the colors unfold in ways I could never have imagined in January 2015.  In fact, just recently He allowed one or two spaces of my year to be filled in that had been blank for some time.

I had many personal battles this year.  Most of which many people would never have known.  And that is just fine - because it is not for everyone to know the secret things of the Lord. 

He was pruning my tree and it hurt.  He was creating new life in me that would bring forth new leaves and, at the times I went through each growing season, I could not see their newness until later.  He was decorating the needlework pattern of my life with vivid colors that would stand out in glory to Him.

While the pruning hurt - and sometimes cut very deeply - I can honestly say right now that I am so thankful for what He did in my life this year.  As I look to 2016 the Lord has given me truths from Him of which I will carry into the new year.  These truths are from what He allowed in my life in 2015. 

I have just begun a four week mini Bible study and am enjoying it thus far.  I have already learned much in the few days I have been doing it.  I will be the first to admit that I was bucking the Lord a bit when He kept directing me to do this certain study.  I wanted to "go big" and get into another Bible study I had found - and that one will come this year, Lord willing.  BUT - the Lord kept putting this one in front of me.  What helped me finally stop bucking the Lord was what I read in Amy Carmichael's book Candles in the Dark:

"But go on hoping.  Again and again when I had all but lost hope I used to go to the God of Hope and ask for the gift of hope.  Never be shaken in hope.  Never be cooled in love.  Never get tired of loving and hoping - yes, and believing."

Do you see a reoccurring word in her writings there?

HOPE.

The mini Bible study the Lord led me to was just simply: Hope by Heather Bixler

As I began the Bible study, the Lord put together 2015 in a nutshell in this way from Romans 5:2-5

² Through [Jesus] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

³ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 

⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 

⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

I wrote this down in my Bible study journal: 

"Hope comes from having gone through trials."

suffering - perseverance - character - HOPE

God loves me so much He chooses to allow suffering to bring me to Him.  I can boldly say at the end of 2015 that my suffering through the year has taught me to persevere - there were days when I did not want to do so.  I wanted to give up.  But the Lord gave me the strength to continue and in doing so He built up my character in ways I never would have imagined.  Now my HOPE is in the Lord more strongly and deeper.  For that I am grateful.

In this Hope there are treasures that cannot be taken from me. As Proverbs 24:14 states - when wisdom is found it is a reward and my hope will not be cut off!  I have gained much wisdom in the Lord.  I have gained a closer relationship with Him through it all.  Those treasures are the ones that moth and rust cannot destroy or thieves cannot steal. 

Another verse that has become precious to me as of late is Hebrews 6:19a:

 
¹⁹ Which hope [in the Lord] we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast,

The Lord is the Anchor of my soul and I will rejoice.  He is sure and steadfast - and has proven that time and time again this year.  I found an anchor charm for my bracelet and I bought it for this verse alone - to remind me that my hope is in the Lord in whatever way my future lies before me.  

If I had gone through 2015 with an easier time as I had "hoped" in January, I would not have come out with knowing my Anchor of Hope is secure in the Lord.  I praise Him for what He has done in the year 2015.

I now look towards 2016 with a HOPE that I never fully understood as deeply as I do now.

The Lord is already there.  He's got 2016 in His hands and I am safe within.

To Ponder

PONDER.

It isn't a word we use much in our every day language nowadays.  Instead I find that we are more apt to use the word "think."

While thinking and pondering give us the same thoughts of taking time to actively THINK on something, I am finding that the word ponder goes a bit deeper.

When I researched the difference between THINK and PONDER, I found that the word THINK had over twenty-five different ways of using it, while PONDER only had two main definitions:

verb (used without object)

1. to consider something deeply and thoroughly; meditate (often followed by over or upon).

verb (used with object)

2. to weigh carefully in the mind; consider thoughtfully:

While I realize thinking is required, ponder takes thinking to a whole new level!

Here is a thought - one can think on something while actually not giving it as much thought as one might think.  (Fun sentence right there!)

Take time to look over that last sentence.  Understand the truths that are there. 

That is why I am writing this post and taking the time to "teach" the difference between those two words. In fact, it has taken me a few days to ponder and ask the Lord what to write!

This figurine was my grandmother's and it sits on our mantle each year at Christmas.

The Lord has caused me to PONDER more recently over Christmas and I wanted to encourage you all to do the same.  I know how insanely busy my life has been of late and I honestly believe that is not what God intended for us.  I think it is a tool Satan likes to use so that we do not have time to truly ponder the things of the Lord.  When our attention is on other things, and not that they are all bad, it still can cause us to lose sight of the One in which we should ponder on daily.

Each year I teach the "Christmas Story" - the birth of Christ.  I find that when I teach things each year, the Lord brings out something new on which I learn more from His Word.  This year is no different.

I have come to love Luke 2:19 ~

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

As a mother, I can understand Mary's desire to treasure all that was happening and to think on that glorious time in her life.  There are a lot of memories that a mother holds dear to her heart.

However, her beginnings as a Mother was like no other.  Mary already knew that Who she held in her arms was a miracle in more ways than we would ever understand.

This is where I want us to stop, be still.... and PONDER.

Because the Christmas Story is given so much and many of us know Luke 2:1-11 by heart, I feel we become complacent in the wonder of it all.

Ponder these thoughts with me:

Mary never once doubted the Lord's plan.  As a 13-15 year old, she may not have understood how it would happen since she was not living with Joseph yet, but she still trusted His plan!  How many times have I doubted God in my adulthood!!

God sent His Son, in the form of a baby, to become one of us.  (Read that again...let it really sink in...)  He was still fully God and was fully Man, yet without sin!

Jesus left His heavenly throne to be with those He came to save.  And by being with us, He became flesh and dwelt among us.  He suffered as we suffer.  He felt as we feel.  He experienced life with us so that we could be comforted in knowing He DOES know how we feel.  In my Bible studying I am learning so much more of how Christ lived and it has caused me to realize that truly everything I face, He has already faced when He was here among us - Emmanuel.

In the fullness of time - Christ was born. (Galatians 4)  In. The. Fullness. of. Time. 
How many times do I wish for things to go on MY time table?  What a wonderful thing to ponder - that everything will happen in the time it should!  God's timing is perfect! God may seem silent at times but through the silence He is teaching us to be still and listen for His still, small voice. 

The shepherds were the first to come to see Jesus.  Stinky, smelly shepherds who had just left their sheep had the privilege of bowing first before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  If Christ had been born in a palace they never would have reached the outer gate.  In a way, we romanticize the life of a shepherd and how we portray them in our nativity scenes, but the truth of the matter is that they were considered some of the lowest of low in their society.  They worked with animals - they did not smell very nicely and their clothes were not the latest fashion.  However, they were still that night because they had to be - they were watching out for those precious sheep.  Many of those sheep were used for sacrifices for the people.  How fitting that Jesus, Who the Bible clearly states is OUR Shepherd, would be first visited by the same.  And then one day He became our sacrifice as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  What a beautiful picture - think on that a minute.

Mary needed a Savior too.  At times it seems Mary can be elevated to a higher status than needed.  She was the instrument God used to send His Son - but she also knew she needed Him to be HER Savior.  She was a sinner just like me. 

When the shepherds left, Mary pondered all those things she had seen and heard.  Could she have pondered on more things - probably.  We mothers like to think on our children's births and relive them over and over.  It is such a precious time.  Just eight days later it would be told to her at the Temple through Simeon that Jesus would cause the rising and falling of many in Israel that hearts may be revealed - and a sword will pierce her heart also.  

I have no way of knowing whether Mary understood the implications of that foretelling.  However, we do know that she was there when Jesus was put on the cross.  Was she at the foot of that cross, looking up at her precious Son, Who was also her Savior, and remembering all she pondered that night some 34 years before when the Miracle before her was born?  As a mother, I think she was.  The sword was piercing her heart at that moment. 

But the sword could not pierce her heart forever because Christ did not stay on that cross.  He did not stay in that tomb.  He arose!

The full meaning of Christmas is full circle - Jesus was born to die for a world lost in sin.  He came for ALL. 

Are you in awe of that this Christmas - or any day of the year?  Do you take the time to truly ponder the miracle of Christmas? 

Be careful not to let the fun of the Christmas festivities crowd your mind so that the true meaning of Christmas is left behind.

Take time to ponder.