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How is your year ending? With what was it filled? Which side of the scale tipped over with the most weight...the positive side or the negative side?

Each year usually brings its own blend of...

* tears and smiles
* faith and unbelief
* strength and weakness
* pride and humility
* peace and unrest
* joy and distress
* a positive attitude and a negative one
* love and hate
* forgiveness and bitterness

But each year ends a little differently.

Some years, we feel like we are riding high and we almost fly across that year-end finish line...

Jon 'ShakataGaNai' DavisWikimedia Commons
Sometimes, the year goes by so quickly that we feel like we zoom across the finish line as if we were in a race car...


Occasionally, the year has such a crushing effect on us that we crawl across it like Holland Reynolds...



Though each year may hold its share of trials and/or tragedies, we endure the hardships with the help of the Father. At times, we are broken and stumble in agony across the finish line as Derek Redmond (Olympics 1992), who was helped by his father...


Paul said, “What a wonderful God we have-He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials.” (2 Cor. 1:3 TLB)

Not only do we have a heavenly Father that comforts and strengthens us, we also have a heavenly host as our cheering section, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, “Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us.” (Heb. 12:1 TLB)

No matter how this year played out for you, the New Year offers you a new beginning. Whatever it brings your way, the Father will carry you through it all and bring a host of others to lift you up in prayer and encourage you in your walk.

My prayer for each of you is that your back be to the contrary circumstances of the year now closing, that your feet be firmly planted in the present, that your heart be guarded with the hope of a better new year, that your hands fulfill your calling, that your feet follow the Lord’s steps in all things, that your spirit be filled with faith, joy, and thanksgiving, that your life be filled with blessings, and that you will experience a new and special touch of the Lord’s presence upon all you do.