itsawonderfilledlife

New Years Eve, just three weeks ago, we were waving adiós to 2013, and making fresh promises as we prepared to enter 2014.

So, how are those resolutions, those promises going for you? Feeling down? Discouraged? Feeling lower than a speck of dust under your shoe?

There were so many personal responses to Sunday’s guest post by Annie Downs called Scared to Hope, I felt we needed a follow-up check-in.

So, here it is :

Isaiah 61

The entire chapter is titled … get this :

The Year of the Lord’s Favor

I don’t know about you, but I could really use the hope of a chapter title like that! To look upon 2014 as The Year of the Lord’s Favor could make our, already fouled up, resolutions … dust in the wind.

Speaking of dust, one of my most favorite parts of Isaiah 61 is the following :

“He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.

May the music of Gungor reinforce for you and me, that only God can take the ashes, the dust, of our lives and make something beautiful from it.