Good Riddance 2020

Good Riddance 2020

Good riddance 2020

Are you ready for the New Year? I am, at least, ready to say goodbye to 2020. Good riddance, right? 2020 is a year we won’t forget easily. I had such high hopes for it, yet it was nothing I had hoped for. Yet I am thankful. Because I learned a lot this year, I bet you did too. And, most of all, I am thankful because God is good all the time.

The Lord is good,
A strength and stronghold in the day of trouble;
He knows [He recognizes, cares for, and understands fully] those who take refuge and trust in Him.

(Nahum 1:7, AMP,*)

2020 has taught us what is really important (health, family, and friends) and what’s not, and what is the most important thing we can’t live without (God).

We need God as we need oxygen. If we have God, we have everything we need. And God has promised to always be there for us. Even during a pandemic. That’s why we praise him even now.

Good riddance 2020

So, good riddance to 2020? Not so fast. In order to start well, we need to end well. We need to clean our slate so we won’t bring old baggage to the new year. How do we do that? By asking for forgiveness for our attitudes, for our resistance, for our selfishness. Then we’re ready to leave the past behind us.

The best way to start a new year is to surrender it to God. Because surrendering to God brings blessings. And his will is best for each of us. We don’t necessarily understand it but it is nonetheless true. Hard things in our life when lived with Jesus can become our greatest blessings.

So, use these last days of 2020 for counting your blessings and thanking God for them, asking for forgiveness, and surrendering your plans for 2021. Then you’re truly ready to say goodbye to 2020 and welcome 2021. And believe me, you will be able to do that with joy and peace.

Gracious God,
We come to you with heavy baggage from this past year,
we leave them at the feet of the cross.
Forgive us.
Forgive our sour attitudes, our complaints, and our selfishness.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Change us from inside out,
create a new clean heart in us.
We thank you for blessing us with your presence.
Thank you for our family and friends,
thank you for the closed doors and the challenges,
make us more like you.
We also surrender the new year to you,
may your will happen in and through our lives.
Open the right doors, close the wrong ones.
Guide us, help us, and bless us according to your will for us.
In Jesus’ precious name,
Amen

Q4U: How are you saying goodbye to 2020? And how do you welcome 2021?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you embrace God and his will for you! Have a blessed new year!

Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash.

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