I want to take a moment to thank each of you who have linked up to the Grace Café. I am blessed to have read your posts over these past few months and I look forward to more in 2012. Since this is the last Grace Café of 2011, tonight I want to share a few events and some of the scriptures that brought me comfort this year. God bless you all and I wish you a Happy New Year.
I always look forward to a new year as a time of new beginnings. The old has gone, the new has come. However, 2011 did not begin on a positive note for my husband and me because he lost his job in mid-January. However, rather than feeling despair, we both felt a sense of relief (he was in a high stress job) and we were at peace. We thank God that his unemployment was short lived and he is now in a job that he enjoys and at a much lower stress level.
When I faced some health issues and a minor surgery in mid-year, again God gave me peace. I knew that whatever happened I was in His hands.
No matter what we face in life, God is with us. His word brings comfort, peace, joy and reassurance. These are a few of the verses:
On peace: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27)
His faithfulness: Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. (Revelation 19:11)
Our prayers: And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. (Revelation 5:8)
His sovereignty: “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?” (Job 38:31)
On salvation: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
In times of need: I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? (Psalm 121:1)
On obedience: (Obey was my word of the year and this is the verse) But Peter and the apostles said, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)
