Hope For the New Year
It was the typical after-Christmas scenario. We had a fridge full of leftovers. Good stuff. Taco fixings. Chicken Enchiladas. Chicken poppyseed casserole. Cheesy potatoes. Quiche. The little smokie sausage rollups. And the cookies were scattered in various containers, taking over the counters.
And we didn’t want any of it. We ordered soup and salad from Chick-Fil-A delivery. After several days of rich food, we just wanted something lighter.
The old quote that you can have too much of a good thing is true.
Have you ever loved a particular song until the radio overplayed it and you got tired of it? Sometimes it is the wait for something that increases its value. Josh Turner agrees in his country song lyrics about a sailor coming home with “The longer the waiting, the sweeter the kiss.”
So why are we so impatient about what we want? Why do we take away joy from our kids by buying them too much? And why do we pursue material things so much when Luke 12:15 tells us “life does not consist in an abundance of possessions”?
Having too much can take away the joy of the little.
My husband and I have plenty. More than enough and more than many people. But we still wouldn’t be considered wealthy. And I’m really happy about that. I wonder if great wealth would take away some of the joy I have in simple things. Like a nice vacation that we saved up for two years. Planning it and anticipating it was so much part of the fun.
Proverbs 30:8 says, “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” I am grateful that is where I am. I get excited anticipating things that are probably humdrum to the wealthy, but I don’t have to worry about day-to-day needs like those who live in poverty. What a blessing!
So, as I look forward to the New Year, instead of longing for things I think I want, I am grateful for what I don’t have.
When we don’t have something, we hope for it. And hope is even a more beautiful thing in the spiritual realm.
Hope is part of the redemptive process.
“We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:23-25).
Next time I am frustrated at myself for my sinful responses to life, I will remember that I am not there yet, but I am hoping for the day when I am like my Savior. I have to remember that the redemptive process has three parts. I have been justified. It is finished. I am being sanctified, the gradual process of being made like Christ. And even though I often fall painfully short of that, I have hope in remembering the last part of that redemptive process is that glorification of being made perfect. Paul said, “We wait for it patiently.”
This year, I will be more patient with myself and others. I will remember the hope that we have in being made like Christ. It is not a “wishing for something” hope.
It is an excited anticipation of a “for sure thing” kind of hope. We will behold Him and will be made perfect because of the glorious gift of salvation.
Just as Denny and I paid that vacation deposit, guaranteeing us what was to come, God “put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
It’s a for sure thing. As I look forward to this year with hope, I am grateful that our hope is in Christ , anticipating it and waiting for it patiently.