I switched the sentiment last night in the car as we drove home from our friends’ home. We’d watched the New Year come in, and then we danced and danced to 50s and 80s music. I found myself smiling the entire time. It’s hard not to when I’m dancing.

So, with extreme fatigue, I said, “Happy You Near” to the kids. The words hung in my head (but not in theirs because by that time they were asleep). I’d been praying for new words from Jesus this year, and here they’d come–right out of my mouth. Last year the words were:

Truth in love

and

Joy in rest

But this year, I think God wants me to have Him Near. Happy You near. I am happiest when I sense His presence near. The Scripture says, “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works” (Psalm 73:28). To have a truly happy New Year is to have God near.

So, that will be my filter this year, to seek Him first. To attend to the tasks He places before me. To be so close to Him that I finally become utterly comfortable in my own skin, that I finally stop fretting about other people’s opinions of me.

I want to be near Him
So I can hear Him
So I can obey Him
So I can rejoice in Him
So I can rest in Him
So I can rest in myself
So I can have peace in my heart
So I can receive grace upon grace
and heap it also upon myself

Happy You Near!