Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:18-19

How many times do we pray for change? I know I do it a lot, the amazing thing about having a relationship with God is that you can talk to him about anything, ask anything of him – nothing is too big, small, possible or impossible for him. You are his child and he loves you. He wants good things for you, he designed you to be in relationship with him and with others. 

I think sometimes we forget that when we ask things of God, we also have to brace for change. It’s tempting to live in our comfortable little bubble of things not changing, with each day being as predictable as the next. We can fill our lives to bursting with all of the things we want to do, the ways we want to serve and the relationships we want to grow but end up having our hands so full of things that we have no room for God. 

As tempting as it is to live in the comfort of what we know and understand, when we make room for God, when we invite him into our lives and talk to him about the things we’d love to do – we have to expect change. 

Isaiah knew it! He says: ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell in the past.’ meaning we can learn from the past but we don’t get to ‘dwell’ there, we don’t get to hunker down, stockpile all our belongings and never move again. Unlike bears hibernation is not a part of our yearly cycle, as much as sometimes we wish it was. 

A lot of us perhaps wish that we could have pressed pause on our lives and gone into hibernation for all of 2020 – or at least until it was safe to hug and see our relatives again. 

At the beginning of this year as I put my new year’s goals and vision into God’s hands I had a real sense of expectancy. ‘This was going to be my year.’ And boy wasn’t it a year for us all?!

I am reminded at the end of the year that God knew at the beginning what this year would hold, and he planted us at this point in history for a purpose. So while this year has been wildly out of our comfort zone, and for some has been the toughest of their life – hold onto the fact that God is still with us. Isaiah uses the word ‘Immanuel’ when he prophesied the coming of Jesus, it’s a word for God that we only ever really use at Christmas time but I’d encourage you to remember it day to day. The word Immanuel means – God with us! And we need him just as much now heading into the new year as we ever have done!

Don’t be afraid of what’s to come, brace for change, see what new things God will do as a result of what we have travelled through together. He will provide for you, Isaiah says: ‘I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.’

So however your year has looked, don’t give up on him, even when you can’t see it God still has the plan and is fighting and providing for your every need, even if you feel like right now you’re in the wilderness, streams of love and blessing are coming.

Thinking of you all with much love and praying blessing, favour and change in the new year for you, that you hold on to God in the highs and the lows and that you will recognise his voice as you follow his footsteps!

Claire x