Good Morning! I'm your host Lonnie Wibberding, and you are listening to God Notes. A daily devotional podcast sent out from sunny Southern California.
Today is Monday, January 1, 2024.
Happy New Year everyone. We have just moved out of 2023 into 2024. The first day of a new year is beginning.
Today is a great time to reflect. Thank God for the blessings of the past, and think about what we want our lives to look like in the future.
God gives us the ability to make choices, to shape the way we live. We can't always control what happens to us, there are things that we just have to deal with. But, we have a huge ability to choose what we do with our circumstances. It's so easy to blame circumstances, and give up. Then sink into a funk with an attitude that nothing will ever change, so this is my life.
But living on default is not a great way to live.
It's like the two guys are talking during lunch break. The one opens his lunch box and says in disgust, "Great! Bologna sandwiches. I hate bologna." The next day the same thing happens. "Bologna again."
His friend turns to him and says, "Why don't you ask your wife to make you something different for lunch?" "What?" says the first guy. "I pack my own lunch.
What are you packing in your lunch?
Our text today is found in Isaiah 43. God is reaching out to a rebellious nation asking them to come back to Him, because He has great plans for them.
Isaiah 43:18-19 says:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.19 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.
Perhaps God is calling you to a better life this year. And maybe there is some bologna you need to leave behind?
He has great plans for you. Why not step in with Him into this new year.
May God Bless your day. We'll talk again tomorrow.