CLIMBING in 2012

I will go before thee,

and make the crooked places straight:

I will break in pieces the gates of brass,

and cut in sunder the bars of iron.

~God's Promise Through Isaiah~

Every year, often on New Year's Eve, I take a look back over my life during the past year

and set out some goals for the coming year. 

After all, if we don't reach higher we will not make any progress in our life.

My salvation is being lived out starting now and my time (1440 minutes a day) is either being redeemed for eternity or being lost eternally. I usually look back at my goals for past years and it doesn't seem like I met them or made any progress. Maybe I am just inching forward but it is sure better than a landslide because I allowed satan to undermine the foundation of my life in Jesus Christ.

Each year I start a new journal. Sometimes it has been a three-ring binder but the last few years I have enjoyed using a spiral notebook. Either way, it is a record of my spiritual journey and a place to write down things that brought meaning to my life.

Recently, there was time to lay down the normal routine and just read (well, and eat tooo much). I have working through some books by Rosalind Goforth, the wife of Jonathan Goforth, missionaries to China, years and years ago. I have been reading her book, "Climbing" which gives her personal story, behind the scenes, of their years of service in China. This book has influenced what I have chosen to write in the first few pages of my journal. My goals this year are not a list of character to build, but of some verses, quotes, and a hymn, for the year to come.

"And as the path of duty is made plain

May grace be given that I may walk therein

Not like the hireling for his selfish gain

Making a merit of his coward dread

With backward glances and reluctant tread

But cheerful in the light around me thrown

Walking as if to pleasant pastures led

Doing God's will as if it were my own

Yet trusting not in mine, 

but in His strength alone."

~Rosalind Goforth~

I shall pass through this world but once.

Any good, therefore,

That I can do,

Or any kindness I can show to any human being,

Let me do it

NOW

For I shall not pass this way again.

~Rosalind Goforth~

He taught me to yield up the love of life

For the sake of a 

LIFE OF LOVE.

~Mrs. Krumm...Quoted by Rosalind Goforth~

I love the LORD,

because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

Because he hath inclined his ear unto me,

therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

~Psalm 116:1-2~

"Finally, as you love God with all your heart, soul and might,

trust Him, too. Really trust Him. Trust God with all your heart, your soul and might. You and I can not solve every problem. What we can do is be kind, forgiving, and patient before the Lord. We can not "fix" everything that is broken. Only God can do that. In His time and His way, the Lord can not only bring peace, but He can give you the very desires of your heart as you seek Him with integrity. He can redeem the years the locusts have eaten, and He delights in blessing His faithful children. "The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth not sorrow with it. 

(Proverbs 10:22)." 

~"Repost from Doug Phillips"~

This is my prayer for this coming year. These are the goals of my heart. If I love God with all my heart and with all my might, and trust Him, and if YOU do these things too, do you realize that everything will come out right?? Right, in light of God's plan for your year?!

What are YOU doing to start off this year with Jesus??

Tomorrow, I will share the hymn I chose for this year.

~Judith~