A New Year!!

I found several wonderful poems and verses to usher in the new year; my resolution is to become closer in my walk with the Lord and put everything into His hands...no matter what this year brings!  Enjoy these touching poems, and consider how you can relate them to your daily walk with Christ throughout 2010!

Just One Request

Dear Master for this coming year
Just one request I bring:
I do not pray for happiness,
Or any earthly thing—
I do not ask to understand
The way Thou leadest me,
But this I ask: Teach me to do
The thing that pleaseth Thee.

I want to know Thy guiding voice,
To walk with Thee each day.
Dear Master make me swift to hear
And ready to obey.
And thus the year I now begin
A happy year will be—
If I am seeking just to do
The thing that pleaseth Thee.

--Unknown Author

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The New Year

Dear Lord, as this new year is born
I give it to Thy hand,
Content to walk by faith what paths
I cannot understand.

Whatever coming days may bring
Of bitter loss, or gain,
Or every crown of happiness;
Should sorrow come, or pain,

Or, Lord, if all unknown to me
Thine angel hovers near
To bear me to that farther shore
Before another year,

It matters not—my hand in Thine,
Thy light upon my face,
Thy boundless strength when I am weak,
Thy love and saving grace!

I only ask, loose not my hand,
Grip fast my soul, and be
My guiding light upon the path
Till, blind no more, I see!

--Martha Snell Nicholson

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Another Year Is Dawning

Another year is dawning,
Dear Master, let it be,
In working, or in waiting,
Another year with Thee.

Another year of mercies,
Of faithfulness and grace;
Another year of gladness
In the shining of Thy face.

Another year of progress,
Another year of praise,
Another year of proving
Thy presence all the days.

Another year of service,
Of witness of Thy love,
Another year of training
For holier work above.

Another year is dawning,
Dear Master, let it be
On earth, or else in heaven
Another year for Thee.

--Francis Ridley Havergal (1874)

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Some verses to encourage you in your new year!  

1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

~When we are saved, we are a new creation in Christ!  We are able to start fresh and live for Him.  In this new year, put Christ first!  This is a chance to start clean and have a wonderful year.

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Philippians 3:13-14  No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.

~ Now is the time to focus on the future and put the past behind you.  Follow God's lead, and he will guide you in the right path - that straight and narrow path which we can not follow on our own.  Though we still have faults and the materialistic and pleasure-seeking world seems to distract us, we must STRAIN to focus on God!  Paul speaks of STRAINING to finishing the race - obviously it is not a simple task!  Runners know that it takes months and years to train for that big race; no pain, no gain.  This is the same with following God.  We will not fail to stray, but we must continue on with our training, listen to the Coach, and STRAIN to finish!  With God, all things are possible, so never give up!

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Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

~ God knows what plans he has for our future, and they are ones of blessings and spiritual fortune!  All we have to do is follow Him and do his will, even if it clashes with our own desires.  We experience disaster when we need a wake-up call or when God knows something better can come of it - take Job's story.  He lost absolutely everything he had, and his own wife told him to curse God.  He was in severe physical, emotional, and spiritual pain, yet he refused to do anything but bless God.  BECAUSE Job was faithful, God blessed him many times over, making him wealthier than before and multiplying his livestock and family.  If we choose to follow God through thick and thin, we will make it.  We can only see our meager little goals, but God sees the grander plan, and it is one of prosperity and joy!

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Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 

~ God's timing is perfect.  As it says in verse 1 says, there is a time for everything under the sun!  There is a time to rejoice, a time to mourn, a time to laugh, and a time to weep!  These things should be done in God's time, and they will be blessed.   You single guys and gals who get frustrated by being single?  Wait on God!  He may have the perfect mate for you, but He knows you may miss them if you try to search out a relationship now.  Another big one - the taboo, premarital sex.  That is God's marriage gift, use it in God's time!  If you choose to open the gift early, it will be old and not blessed by God.  So, whatever you choose to do in this new year, do it in God's will and God's timing! 

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*poems and verses found at:

http://christianity.about.com/od/newyearsprayersverses/New_Years_Prayers_and_Verses.htm

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May everyone have a BLESSED and SAFE year!  Put the Lord first in all that you do, and you will be prosperous!