Hope For 2017

2017! What a wonderful year ahead!  Each and every year comes with HOPE! The rest is up to us and what we do with it. May all of us take hold of the HOPE of this world and run with joy to complete all that He has given us to accomplish. It is my hope that all of us will complete the goals and expectations that this year presents and we will see tangibly the advancements we have made!

Colossians 3:23–24 says, ” Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”  This truth is amazing because it’s about our perspective on life. “Whatever you do” is a statement full of hope; full of life.  In this year, in your life, whatever you do, do it for Jesus. It doesn’t matter how big or how small the tasks of each day may be because all of it is holy unto the Lord. He alone is the One watching while you pick up after others, do the dishes, complete all the daily tasks your boss gives you, or tackle that new adventure that has been waiting for you to embrace. He alone sees what you do and how well you do it. You may never get a thank you or a moment of appreciation, but be joyful in accomplishing what is given to you. The Lord is the One who will give you an inheritance; a reward. Let this year be the one that we remind ourselves it is all for Him.

I remember a time when my children, all four of them, were small and I was working full time as a first-grade teacher. From sun-up to sun-down I was surrounded by little children. And as many of us know, children have many needs. My chores and job responsibilities were constant and by 9 pm I just wanted to go to bed.  I would fall into bed only to wake a few times at night to take care of a baby and to wake in the morning tired but having to do it all over again. There were times when I thought the growing laundry pile might actually swallow me and would anyone even notice. Life can become quite mundane and the mundane can be exhausting. All I knew to do was ask the Lord for help and to keep going. It was in the mundane of life, the routine, the ordinary that I learned how everything from changing diapers to grading papers was holy.  Whether this year is exciting or mundane, it all counts. Jesus is there even in the mundane.

We are all part of one BIG plan. Each one of us has different jobs and responsibilities, but our God sees us and He hears us. All that lay ahead, ordinary or not, is exciting to Him. He calls it holy!  Our lives impact and our attitudes influence. The people of the world will think us strange when we reflect the attitude and work habits of our God. They will wonder why we show up each day ready to succeed…and may it make them wonder. They will wonder why we are joyful in a world so full of hurt…and may it make them wonder. Whatever we do, may we do it for you, Jesus, …and may they wonder enough to know Him too!

Here is what I feel over this year: This is a year of breakthroughs and rising up. It’s a year of turning around for those headed in the wrong direction. It’s the start of new beginnings for the whole nation but there is an opposition coming that has a real hatred for the goodness of God, however, it will find itself frustrated. People will begin to speak a different kind of talk and see things more clearly. The nation will become tenser but the church will expand undercover and underground.

Scroll to Top