Are you beginning this new year with expectation? Here’s a good verse of encouragement.

“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19 KJV).

I’m ready for a new thing. Aren’t you? A good new thing. A new thing in 2020—coronavirus—brought devastation and death. It was the longest year in my lifetime—not measured in days but in fear and heartbreak…the year that seemed to have no end.

Yet here we are, beginning another year, tinged with uncertainty and apprehension. We find it hard to be hopeful. If only someone would go before us, clear the way, and assure us we’ll travel safely.

Here we are, beginning another year, tinged with uncertainty and apprehension. We find it hard to be hopeful. If only someone would go before us, clear the way, and assure us we’ll travel safely.. Click To Tweet

This brings to mind a conversation Moses had with the Lord just after the golden-calf incident.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants. I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way” (Exodus 33:1-3 NIV).

Moses responded, “You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people. The Lord replied, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’

“Then Moses said to him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?’

“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name’” (see Exodus 33:12b-17).

In the remaining verses of Exodus 33, Moses makes a request. “Now show me your glory.” Take time to read verses 19-23 to see the amazing way the Lord responded. I am astonished by the relationship the Lord had with Moses. Does he desire such an intimate relationship with me? The thought fills me with awe.

These truths I choose to claim for myself:

• God knows me by name.
• He has a plan for my life, and his Presence will go with me into 2021.

While that alleviates my anxiety, it does not insulate me from hardship. I must decide whether I will live in faith or in fear. The best place to anchor down is the Psalms. There I read the Lord is my shield, my refuge, my stronghold, my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my support, my Savior, my Redeemer…and so much more.

I must decide whether I will live in faith or in fear. The best place to anchor down is the Psalms. There I read the Lord is my shield, my refuge, my stronghold, my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my support, my… Click To Tweet

And then I read this in Exodus 34:10, “Then the Lord said: ‘I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work, that I, the Lord, will do for you.’”

I can’t imagine what the coming year will bring, but I’m confident his Presence goes with us. Who knows? Maybe he will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world so that the people we live among will see how awesome is the work the Lord will do for us!

Let’s live with expectation, borrowing the prayer of Moses for this new year: “Teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.”

Would you share a promise the Lord has given you? And please share this article with your friends!

© Dianne Barker 2020