Message to FILL the new year with:

New Year’s message Sunday morning:

“If there’s a year in your life you’re going to need Romans 15:13, it’s going to be this one: [13] Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Titus 2:13: [13] Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

“When Christ, who is our life, I Timothy 1:1 says He is our hope: [1] Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

“When you’re looking DAILY (renewed daily)for Him, it becomes the joy and rejoicing of your heart. The Holy Spirit takes His Word and fills, empowers your life with joy and peace when you believe the truth of His coming. It’s that powerful because it fills you with hope.

“When you daily look for Him, when you daily look to Him in faith, for your identity, for meaning and purpose in life, for acceptance and forgiveness, for LIFE. When we talk about identity and purpose and meaning and acceptance, we’re talking about LIFE!

“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear . . . When you look to Him for LIFE it fills you with hope, and that fills you with joy and peace in believing.

“Listen, Bible-believing Christians can be some of the most cantankerous, ornery, spiteful, misbehaving, bad-attitude crowd you’ll ever meet, can’t you? That’s just flesh; that’s not faith.

“You get caught up looking at the world, caught up looking at problems, looking at circumstances, not faith, not the truth of who we are in Christ.

“The way you overcome that is that daily intake; that daily looking for the truth of His Word.

"That believing fight of faith where every day, ‘No matter what it looks like or what I think about it, in spite of my fears and anxieties about life, I’m going to look by faith about what God says is true about me, about my circumstances, about what He’s doing, and that truth works effectually in me.’ It fills you with joy and peace because you’re looking at that hope.”

(new article tomorrow for sure. I’ve had a worsening pain on the left side of my mouth that, at times, has been all-consuming. No over-the-counter painkiller can touch it either. So I’m ready to call the dentist—someone I’ve never really been afraid of but hate to go to because of the bill.)