Faith in 2010

What a year it has been.  God is constantly instructing the Israelites to remember in the Old Testament, and in many ways I want to just move on to 2011.  The two biggest and best things from 2010 was my job change & my second trip to China.  I'm very blessed in my new position, and I'm extremely grateful to God for opening the door for me to work in this new place.  It was also a joy to visit friends serving in China.  The gracious people of China taught me alot of things like being hospitable to foreigners.  For the most part, though, this year has been a year of status quo.

Spiritually, I feel like this year has been a waste, but I know it hasn't been.  I know that even though it seemed very dry and barren much like the picture of part of China above, God is using it to continue to teach me.  It is in these times that I learn perseverance.  I choose to believe what I know to be true, whether I feel it or not.  This is really difficult to do, but that is faith.  "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1 (NASB)  God is so gracious and allows us to see many things that we do have faith in, but not always.  So I'm grateful for the year to build my faith, but . . .

I am very much looking forward to a new year to see what God has in store for this year.