Sweet goodbyes...

Today has been a rough day for me. I haven't felt good at all and could barely get enough strength to sit up much less write. But before midnight hits on this Thursday, let me leave you with a brief word from the Lord. Ready? Here it goes! Make your goodbyes sweet!

As you get ready to enter the new year, God is calling on you to do it right. He wants you to leave what is old, hard, and wrong in 2016. Why? Because He wants you to walk into your hellos with peace. He wants you to be on His timing and not your own. He wants you to stop trying to figure out how to do what He has already laid out. Are you willing to release control in 2016 so that you don't miss the freedom that He has for you in 2017? I was led to Ecclesiastes 3 immediately and it spoke loudly to my spirit.

 Teacher: For everything that happens in life—there is a season, a right time for everything under heaven:

A time to be born, a time to die;

a time to plant, a time to collect the harvest;

A time to kill, a time to heal;

a time to tear down, a time to build up;

A time to cry, a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, a time to dance;

A time to scatter stones, a time to pile them up;

a time for a warm embrace, a time for keeping your distance;

A time to search, a time to give up as lost;

a time to keep, a time to throw out;

A time to tear apart, a time to bind together;

a time to be quiet, a time to speak up;

A time to love, a time to hate; 

a time to go to war, a time to make peace. (Ecc. 3:1-8, VOICE)

If you are like me, you have looked at this scripture as a way to feel better at a funeral but today, God told me that it's a blueprint to saying goodbye. You see, as hard as it is to move on, if God said it, He planned it right along with a hello. The birth of one thing often means the death of something else, the healing of one thing means something else had to die. But it's okay. Do you see that? Your responsibility is to walk out your goodbye sweetly because there is a hello waiting on the other side. Nowhere in that scripture does it say figure it out. As a matter of fact, it says the opposite.

“and I know God has made everything beautiful for its time. God has also placed in our minds a sense of eternity; we look back on the past and ponder over the future, yet we cannot understand the doings of God.  I know there is nothing better for us than to be joyful and to do good throughout our lives;  to eat and drink and see the good in all of our hard work is a gift from God. I know everything God does endures for all time. Nothing can be added to it; nothing can be taken away from it. We humans can only stand in awe of all God has done.  What has been and what is to be—already is. And God holds accountable all the pursuits of humanity”. (Ecc. 3:11-15, VOICE)

Do you see? Though you have the capacity to look back and forward, you still won't figure out what God is doing. However, He holds you accountable for what you do with what He puts before you. I encourage you to look at what God has told you to leave in 2016 and do it! Tell anger goodbye and say hello to forgiveness! Tell depression goodbye and say hello to joy! Tell procrastination goodbye and say hello to manifestation! Make that goodbye sweet and filled with purpose and love! I promise you that your hello is waiting for you and it's better than you could ever imagine!

Amen…