A Blessed Christmas 2021: Take Heart!

  A Blessed Christmas 2021

From our family to yours!

…In Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart…I have overcome the world! (John 16:33)

As I reflected on this year and what the Lord would want me to share, this phrase caught my attention and resonated with me in light of all that has transpired this year: Take Heart…

It has been a year of losing heart. A year of loss, sickness, deprivation, discouragement. Several of my friends lost loved ones. Some have been diagnosed with troubling illnesses. Some have lost jobs. Some have experienced rejection in relationships. Is it any wonder we have lost heart? Where is God in all this? This is not what we expected!

 

My Advent study Our Hope Has Come by Lifeway Women shared some insights that gave me some perspective:

His disciples did not understand…”their cluelessness was a result of their expectations for the Messiah. They expected the Messiah to overthrow Roman rule. They expected Him to bring peace and end persecution of God’s people. They expected deliverance. But Jesus had something else in store. He didn’t want to overthrow Roman rule, He planned to overthrow Satan’s rule. He wasn’t there to bring peace between nations; He was there to bring peace to our souls. He wasn’t going to deliver God’s people from the authorities of the day; He was going to deliver God’s people from sin, death, and shame, and do so with finality…”

 

SO what I have learnt this year is that it is true when He said…”For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts…”(Isaiah 55:8-9) We don’t know what His overarching plan is in all of this, but we DO know that He has a plan, even though Satan is wrecking the world in his fury, he has already been overcome by the Lamb. Jesus is our HOPE. This is a time of cleansing going on in the Church, ‘the establishing of Christlikeness, the crown event in the church” according to Francis Frangipane.

Indeed, personally this has come to life for me in this very rough year with an unexpected struggle. This has caused me to seek healing in my union with God, thawing out my heart used to numbing as default when overwhelmed. I have discovered new joys in my everyday life, seeing Him as I look upward in the sky and clouds, as I look around in the eyes of those surrounding me, and in my walks, the leaves, the trees, the flowers, the cool breezes and oh, that sunshine!

 

God has also used some women to inspire and encourage me by their walk with Him: my Mom with her joy, always beaming with her faith in Her Saviour, Joy B. with her joy in all circumstances, Lina A. with her words of Biblical truth and Beverly R. with her reflective walk through grief and several others like Bonnie G. and Vaneetha R. on discovering God’s Presence in suffering. So grateful for my husband and 2 sons and daughter-in-law. For too long, I have looked at what I did not have, and did not fully realize the treasures laid before me. Blessed beyond measure!

May you too see the treasures around you for they are His Presence in your life. He sees you. He has got you. Trust. Rest.

 

With love, thoughts and Prayers, 

Sita