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"... let us run with perseverance the race that is proposed to us, looking firmly to Jesus ...". Hb 12.1-2

Someone once said that "An optimist stays until midnight to see the New Year's entrance." A pessimist stays until making sure the old year is gone. "(Bill Vaughn)

When we look at and talk to people, we will see that this is a time when we meet with reflective people, sometimes with hope, sometimes with fear. There are many people anxious and worried because the new thing that represents a new blank page that needs to be written in the history of their lives.

A poet of our day who "The noise of the fireworks seems to represent the need to drown out the noise we find ourselves in this New Year season." This noise within us are the worries, the anxiety, our dreams, the projects we have for the future.

People want to be sure of finding a foreseeable future for a new time. We see in the newspapers pages and pages assigned to the forecasts for a new year, horoscopes, astral maps, people looking for seers, tarot, búzios game, palmistry and so many other options that are proposed to answer about an uncertain future. Unfortunately also, we still see some newspapers and magazines more open their pages for Christians to read the horoscope, than to open the Bible ...

When we, children of God, remember the words of the psalmist:

"Commit your way to the Lord, trust him and the more he will do it."

New year, new challenges, new horizons, new relationships, new commitments, new victories, but also new difficulties, new conflicts, new responsibilities, everything depends on how we welcome a new time. However, you can be sure that we carry ourselves in the heart, my brothers and sisters, is that our God is always the same, since the text now Ex 34: 1-8:

"compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in kindness and truth".

"God is faithful" is a common statement today. We see and hear this statement often around us. Who never witnessed this appointment in some car stickers on the streets of our cities?

But the question is: Are we faithful to God?

In particular, I had never seen a sticker that states "I am faithful to God" ... However, we continue to demonstrate every sunrise of the Lord's faithfulness in our lives.

So, if we know that he is faithful, why fear the future? Why are you afraid to be dominated by worries if God in his fidelity has everything under control?

Maybe we can take at least three attitudes before this new moment that starts.

The first one will require faith and willingness to go forward. This means having faith and action.
In Exodus 14:15, when the people of God fleeing from Pharaoh's army face a new obstacle in their path; the sea, there was only one way to go, and an attitude to take, but the people cried out to God and nothing was done ... Then the Lord said to the people: March!

No sea in our lives will open without us marching, without the plant of our feet treading in the unknown waters.

We must go forward! We do not remain just crying out to God for our future, because He tells us today: Marchen!

Never forget that every sentence precedes an action. Then we do not stay static; Marchin On! Let us march as children of God, as a people, together, united as God's family.

Second, you must define where your trust and hope are based
Have we trusted in the promises of the Lord?

There are people who have supported their lives in promises of men, or in the financial power of money, or in intelligence and wisdom, but there are always those who support their dreams in the Lord's strong Arm and in the strength of his power.

Let's learn to speak like the psalmist:

"But now, Lord, what should I expect? My hope is in you." (Psalm 39.7)

Finally, we have to have a direction, an objective, an ideal. Nobody gets anywhere if he does not go in the direction of an ideal, because without the direction of the target we lost ourselves on the way.

"We all march towards an ideal, so that the elevation of life or the proportion of entrepreneurship depends on the ideal, if the ideal is unattainable because it is ideal, we are at least on the road, but always in its direction" .

President Roosevelt said that "the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

There is a saying that says the following: If your dreams are in the clouds, do not worry, because they are in the right place; Now build the foundation. "Remember that the foundation of your dreams and life projects is the Lord Jesus.

As the psalmist says in chapter 127: 1:

"If the Lord does not build the house, those who build it labor in vain, and if the Lord does not guard the city, he watches in vain for the watchman." Psalm 127: 1

The apostle Paul in the letter to the Philippians chapter 3: 13-16 helps us and indicates that we must move forward to the things that are before us, continuing towards the target, for the prize of the sovereign vocation of God in Christ Jesus.

One thing I have learned is that we should not tell our dreams to the people who can steal them, but we must tell God that he can do them.

God takes care of us. It is up to us to choose whether we want Him to take care of us or not. The choice is ours ... He remains the same; always faithful and great in mercy.

That in this year 2019 we can march, commit and continue to the goal together.

That all of us are united as a family in this new moment, in this new time.

Happy New Year! May God continue to bless and care for us!