Happy New Year!!!

Full Proof Ministries would like to wish each and every person a very Happy New Year!

Oftentimes the beginning of a new year offers the opportunity to look back on the previous year. We often look at the past year and identify some of our accomplishments and losses. We may have stepped into a new role vocationally, or accepted some new responsibilities by way of having a child. On the other hand we may have lost a job or even lost a loved one. As we take a moment to reflect upon the changes of the past year, I think it is important to identify the consistencies as well.

I'm willing to bet that despite what you have experienced over the past year, you've had ups and downs or highs and lows. What has been consistent through all of it? My hope is that you have a relationship with Jesus Christ and you can identify that He has been consistently with you through the ups, downs, highs, and lows. Having an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ is the vital key to walking through this life with any semblance of confidence, wholeness and purpose. He is to be our anchor during the storms of life and our sun on a sunny day. It is His desire and our need.

Scripture offers great insight to God's provisions for us and it reveals the depravity we are destined for when that relationship with Christ is absent.

'“Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it, the Lord is His name, ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ ' Jeremiah 33:2-3

'There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. ' Proverbs 14:12

'Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. ' James 1:16-18

'Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. ' Psalms 55:22

'Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. ' 1 Peter 5:6-7

'The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.' Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

There is a couple that is close to my heart and they will be wed today, on New Year's Eve. I think of the intimate relationship that we have with our spouses, which leads me to think of love. How do we even know what love is or how to love another?

'In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (atonement) for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ' 1 John 4:10-11

Love is a choice, not a feeling. If Christ died for us while we were yet sinners and God hates sin, we can see that it's a choice that He made, not based upon an emotion, but a decision based upon His heart's posture towards mankind. This is the heart posture we are to have towards one another, especially our spouses.

What better way to have this heart towards others than by identifying how the Father has loved you? When you do this, God transforms you and gives you the ability to practice the same postures towards others. This is where the New Year begins and really, this is where each new day is to begin.

May God bless you this year as you apply the instructions given in His Word and receive the provisions He promises therein.