Hello and Happy 2022!
For the past couple of years, I have been in the habit of picking a word or a phrase to focus on throughout each new year. Well, January 1, 2022 came and went, and I was drawing a blank. December had been a hard month…I had been dealing with some struggles of contentment and trusting God’s plan for my future. Then, I heard a sermon that reminded of a great truth from the story of Anna that helped pull me out of the “slough of despond” I had allowed myself to sink into.
I was familiar with the story of Anna meeting baby Jesus in the temple, but I hadn’t thought much about the details of her life. It’s a pretty sad tale…she lost her husband after being married only seven years, and then the rest of her life she remained a widow. We don’t see her responding to these circumstances by sinking into self-pity or doubt. (Although, being human, she most likely struggled with this.) But she strengthened her relationship with God! The account tells us she “did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.” (Luke 2:37) She made her relationship with God the foundation of her life, and that was what kept her strong through the trials she faced. Also, another neat thing to think about – it was most likely because of Anna’s devotion to God and her faithfulness that He allowed her to see the newborn Messiah! What an amazing testimony!
This timely truth from Anna’s life is such a blessing, because it can become all too easy to get distracted by things going on in our lives or in the world, and to let those things become #1 in our lives and our thoughts instead of Christ. What a wonderful reminder at the beginning of the year – that Christ is to be the foundation of our lives! Nothing else is more important than that!
After hearing the message on Anna that Sunday, I knew immediately what my focus phrase was going to be for this new year: Christ – My Sure Foundation.
That no matter what happens in the days ahead, whether God blesses me with the gift of marriage or not, if trials come, if I lose a loved one…by remembering to keep God as my foundation I won’t fall into despair, I will have peace, and my joy and purpose of life can never be taken away. If we try to build our life on anything else, any other human relationship, it is like the shifting sand that makes the house crumble and fall. But God is the Rock, the sure foundation that we can build our lives on, and He will hold us fast in anything we face in life!
Isn’t it so exciting when God shows you truths from His Word, or things that fellow believers have written or said right when you needed it? I stumbled across this song recently, and the words go along with what the Lord has been teaching me:
“My hymn of praise shall be “forever Jesus”
My firm foundation in the shifting sands
My strength and hope through many fears and failures
The disappointments of the past
His constant love has held me fast.”
May the Lord bless you in this new year, and may all our endeavors be for HIM!
sincerely-amanda.com 
That’s very encouraging! Often we are tempted to focus on the relationships we don’t have. This can lead to un-contentment. God has been encouraging me to focus on the relationships I do have and to be thankful for the people I have in my life. He has been teaching me to love Him first and then love my family. This will be “setting the table” in faith that God will bless me with a marriage relationship and it will be preparing me to love my future spouse. My sister has told me what God has taught her. She tells me that Jesus is the only treasure. Even when she does go to get married Jesus must be first or else she’s hoped in a person who is imperfect. We must always set our hope in the Lord and not in people because he is the one who will never fail! He is the sure foundation and He is the One every soul longs after. He is our treasure. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”
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Amen! Discontentment in what we don’t have steals so much of our joy. If God hasn’t given it to us, then it is not what He wants for us right now! Thank you for sharing your thoughts! 💗
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