How are you saying goodbye to 2014?

Was it the greatest year for success and prosperity?

Was it the year for travel and adventure?

Was it the year of joy for the arrival of new babies?

Or perhaps, like mine, the toughest year for cleansing and purging.

Oswald Chambers says, “Be careful what you pray for in ecstasy, God answers prayer.  Expect Him to come, just don’t expect Him to come in a certain way.”  I’ve come to know and understand that well.

My prayer – “Give me a free and completely surrendered heart for You this year.”

I was ill-prepared for the purging and cleansing of every detail of my life – past and present.  He walked before me and with me.  His hand reached back to the past to strip away my belongings.  For months every room and closest in my house was purged of my past and freed for new space.

He reached deep within me to pull the irreparable hurts of my past, the destructive anxieties of lost opportunities which will never return and an unworthy relationship.  He brought them to the surface to face, to cry buckets of tears through sleepless nights to free me for Him alone.

From Sorrow –

The death of several friends and a family member cast shadows on the holiday season.

Hearts torn between sorrow and joy, loss and peace.

A mother’s gift to create beauty in her family, garden and home – silenced.

A son’s anguished tears longing for his father’s touch and words of encouragement – silenced.

Weekly prayers shared with a faithful and dear friend – silenced.

Reflections and reminders of the legacy we leave behind.  Not silenced, but carried on in those left behind.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. John 14:1 (NIV)

I am relieved to say goodbye to 2014.

To Hope –

Renewed freedom to Joy.

I hosted our Christmas celebration with family and friends to share in our Blessed Hope in Christ.

Through the Power of God, Christ came to restore, heal, and point us to a lasting Hope found only in a personal relationship with Him.

To Gratitude –

I can look back now and say, Lord, thank you for my broken heart, crushed and utterly broken to ashes.

Thank you for silent tears of despair, discouragement and disappointment, incapable of drenching the burning pain.

Thank you for the wounds of defeat long frozen in fear and held captive in the deep maze of my heart.

Thank you for the wrestling in prayer asking you how long?  How Long?  How long before my faith draws courage and my hope looks ahead and remembers how deeply you love me?

Carry me to a place where the hurts of a melted heart collide with the Healer and new life grows from the ashes.

In silence, the still small voice of God beckons me to come.  “Come back to your first love.  I will reveal to you how much I love you.  Come back to the Truth of who I AM – I AM love, pure love.”

Step away from despair and discouragement.  Follow me on the path less traveled to the heart.  Return home to me.  Give me your heart.

I will strike the false happiness and establish the true and everlasting happiness of My love.

I will arouse your soul and enlarge your heart that hungers for the intimacy and beauty of My love, My heart.

Your deepest desire is fulfilled in union with Me alone.  I AM the dweller and the light and My love will continually increase for you are My beloved.”

Lord, thank you for the purging and lighting my path this year back home to your heart.  My soul’s thirst quenched in the Living Water of the Everlasting Fountain of your love.

I can’t wait to see what 2015 brings – an Irresistible Future with My Lord!

Happy New Year!