Welcome 2022 – Hope for The New Year

Once again, I sit in the still silence of the morning, cozily clutching my warm coffee mug as the sun peeks its way over the horizon and peers into the windows of my quiet little home. The light slowly spills onto the floorboards, making each moment brighter than the one before; each winter sun ray announcing, not only the beginning of another day, but the ending of another year. Today is New Year’s Eve.

With my crabby-tabby, Tommy Thompson, laying sleepily across my lap and my well-worn Bible propped up on the arm chair, I take a slow, deep breath and think, “How can we possibly be at the end of another year? Again?!?” It seems unfathomable. 

As I ponder the year I have just completed and look curiously ahead at the new year in front of me, I can’t help but feel so many different emotions. I feel thankfulness, sadness, joy, regret, uncertainty, excitement, accomplishment and maybe even a little bit of fear and anxiousness – all waiting their turn to wash over me. 

I take another slow, deep breath. 

As I exhale and pray, to seek the Lord in this moment regarding the year to come, the swirling thoughts begin to settle, like feathers floating quietly to the ground. I see, very clearly – in my mind’s eye and in big, bright, beautiful letters – the word HOPE!

Hope!

That is where I will chose to stand. That is where I will rest. For the new year I will continue to choose hope; hope in Jesus. 

Hope

/hōp/

noun

1. A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
2. A feeling of trust.

Why continue to hope? I choose to hope because hope looks upward. In a world full of hope, life blooms and blossoms. Hope fosters faith. It creates growth, a forward motion, a firm foundation. Hope in Jesus is trust and it brings blessing. 

Hopelessness, on the other hand, looks downward. In a world void of hope there is no flourishing. Hopelessness breeds despair. Having no hope causes death (of a dream, of faith and of promises). Hopelessness stagnates forward motion and instead sinks into the heavy sand. 

As I gaze over the blank horizon of the new year ahead, there are uncountable unknowns. So why allow thoughts of worry, stress or fear? I myself will choose thoughts of hope. 

As I gaze over the blank horizon of the new year ahead, there are uncountable unknowns. So why allow thoughts of worry, stress or fear? I myself will choose thoughts of hope. 

Yet again, as I do every new year, I will allow hope in Jesus to take a front seat. It’s the propellant that boosts me forward and the balance that steadies my inconsistent emotions. 

I can probably imagine what some of you might be thinking. You may be mentally debating that you did have hope for the new year…in 2019. Then 2020 happened. I think we are all still recouping from that one. And maybe you’re thinking, 2020 was so bad that you didn’t think it could get any worse…therefore you had hope for 2021. It just had to get better, right? Then, another harsh reality struck. I do understand. And God does too – that some of you might be more sheepish about jumping onto the hope wagon headed into next year.

Although I am a fairly optimistic person, I do not live in an alternate reality. I too lived through 2020 and now 2021. I was not issued a personal pair of rose-colored glasses, although I’ve thought to myself many times that it would have been so delightful. Reality is there, just as much for me as it is for everyone else, every morning, every evening and every night when I close my eyes. 

I know it might be difficult to muster hope within ourselves – even impossible. However, here is the good news; hope should not come from what we can accomplish. When we look up – at Jesus – hope arises naturally. He is steady, sure, faithful and unwavering. So I can unshakably say, “As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.” (Psalms 71:1) because it is Who I am hoping in, not what I am hoping for.

God is writing our story. He works through the chaos and behind the scenes. He has not forgotten any of us. He is working all things together for good. There is a reason to hope. Yes! There is! We can trust Him. 

God gives us numerous scriptures in His sovereign word about hope. In Hebrews 10:23 it states,

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” 

Hold onto hope! God is faithful! 

In Isaiah 40:31 it’s written,

“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Hope equals strength, Amen?! 

And these additional scriptures also give great encouragement: “But God will never forget the needy; the hope of the afflicted will never perish.” (Psalms 9:18), “May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in you.” (Psalms 33:22) and “The Lord is good to those whose Hope is in him, to the one who seeks him…” (Lamentations 3:25). 

When the world suggests it’s time to give up, choose hope!  

When your circumstances prove an impossible situation, choose hope! 

When you have waited and waited for an answer to prayer, keep choosing hope! 

Hope in Jesus will breathe fresh life. Hope makes the way for the miracle. 

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5

Happy New Year, friends! May your 2022 be brimming with happiness and bursting with hope! 

Thank you Jesus for another year! 

Be blessed! 

 ~ Stephanie