The foundations of law and order have collapsed.  What can the righteous do?   But the Lord is in his holy Temple;
      the Lord still rules from heaven.
   He watches everyone closely, examining every  person on earth. 
~ Psalm 11:3-4 

Did you know that everything that happens today is not a surprise to God?  Did you know that He is with you, beside you, and all around you?  I take comfort in knowing that my God has been a very present help in time of need.  Often, we think that if something bad has happened it somehow got under God’s radar - like a muddy puppy pushing its way through His legs and into the house.  It’s as if we believe that God’s hands are full juggling all the people He loves, and the universe’s law of gravity, and the conflict in the Middle East.  Oops!  Guess He missed that one and look what just happened to my day, life, marriage, etc! 

Or worse yet, we decide that He allowed it.  Which is true, technically, but a dangerous way to view God’s omnipotence.  When we separate ourselves from God in order to say He is over there allowing this thing to come over here to me then where have we gone?  We have gone away from God.  The way to look at a situation correctly is to say “My Good God was WITH me when this bad thing happened”.  He was present.  And then the choice can be made to continue to abide in His presence, soaking up His strength and seeking His counsel for the next moment’s breath.  The other option leads to accusation and that attitude separates us from feeling that we are in God’s presence. 

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that takes refuge in Him.  ~ Psalm 34:8 

Choose to have confidence that God is with you.  That God is for you and not against you. 

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose... 

...What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ...Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... in all these things we are more than    conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither     angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  ~ Romans 8:28-39

This new year promises only the unknown.  But one thing we can rest assured in is that God is still on His throne.  He is still Good ALL the time.  Psalm 11:4 in The Message states that “His Holy address has not changed.”  When everything else feels as though it is changing for good or bad or otherwise, take comfort in knowing that God has not changed...not even his address!