At this time of the year it is not unusual to hear or to use the familiar greeting, “Happy New Year!” I wonder if we really give any serious thought to what we mean when we use this phrase.
Happiness is usually defined according to situations and happenings in life. For example, happiness may be hearing your dentist say, “No cavities this time.” It may be having someone else pick up the bill at the restaurant. It could be your husband saying, “Can I help you with the dishes?” It may be a marriage proposal you thought you’d never get. It may be losing that weight. The point is simply to see that happiness is often an elusive feeling because it’s often linked to experiences such as, success, good grades, a raise, a bonus, or retirement. But how much more would happiness be our experience if we learned to live loved…. if we discovered that we are the thrill of our Abba Father’s heart?
Your whole life will light up when you know in every fiber of your being that Almighty God is, to use the nearest human expression, “head over heels” in love with you. Nothing is so exciting, fulfilling and heart warming as being loved by the most wonderful Person in the universe.
No one understands you like your Maker. He alone has been with you every moment from your conception. No one feels your every pain and delights in your happiness like God. No one longs to exalt you and shower you with gifts like him.
More than anything else in the universe, glimpsing the immensity of God’s personal, passionate love for you will flood your life with peace and security. Neither death nor disaster could ever rob us of the eternal love throbbing within each one of us. When we realize this, life will have meaning like never before.
The God with powers beyond our wildest dreams delights in you, loving you more passionately than the most devoted mother or proudest father or grandparent, and more than any starry-eyed lover has ever loved.
And yet there are those who are relentlessly scheming and working at undermining our awareness of the purity and intensity of God’s boundless love for you. Every Christian on this planet is subjected to this repeated assault. Remaining continually conscious of God’s love for us and convinced of its magnitude is one of life’s greatest challenges.
The groundless fear that the loving, forgiving Lord frowns on us, is like an oppressive fog. It saps us of enthusiasm and undermines the wonderful things our loving Lord longs to do in our lives.
And so as we all look to a new year my wish is that we’d catch a clearer glimpse of God’s eternal love for us that will spur us to victory. In 2009 may your faith soar and may you be inspired to mind boggling heights of achievement as we find peace in His love.
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