Each year Faith Church performs a Christmas Musical. This year, the musical was entitled, \u201cPeace, Hope, and Joy.\u201d Reflecting on these three much-needed blessings, it is so encouraging to remember how we know that we can have true peace, hope, and joy going into this New Year.<\/p>\n
Remember that God sent His only Son to our world to save us from our sins and provide a way that we may have a real, personal relationship with Him. He chose<\/em> to love us; not because we were great people worthy of love, but because He chose<\/em> to treasure us and pour out His love on us. \u201cIn this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be<\/em> the propitiation for our sins.\u201d<\/strong> (1 John 4:10) And we can have that deep relationship with our holy God when we admit we are sinners in need of a Savior, and confess our sins to God, asking His forgiveness and making Him our Lord \u2013 our boss, committing to repent and do things His way.<\/p>\n For those who have made that decision, there are many blessings and hope. For one thing, we know that the Lord is close to those who are His and always hears their cry (Psalm 34:18). We also know that no matter what happens in this world, our Lord will prevail in the end and we will spend eternity with Him where there is no pain or sorrow (Revelation 21:4). What hope!<\/p>\n We do not know what this New Year will bring. Perhaps you are facing hardships already that will follow you into this year, or perhaps you will face hardships in the near future. In all of these things, remember Who will win in the end and Who is on your side! Remember His love that He demonstrated by coming to earth to die for you. And remember that no matter the difficulties faced in this life, you have the hope of eternity. You are not home yet, but when you are, the trials of this life will seem like nothing compared to the awesome wonder of being in the presence of our Savior. \u201cTherefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.<\/strong> For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.\u201d <\/strong>(2 Corinthians 4:16-18)<\/p>\n Let us enter this New Year with the true peace, hope, and joy that comes through our Father! We have a Savior, and He is King and will triumph in the end! He is our hope when all else fails!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"