"If this is to be a Happy New Year, a year of usefulness, a year in which we shall live to make this earth better, it is because God will direct our pathway. How important then, to feel our dependence upon Him!" 
- Matthew Simpson

"I guide you in the way of wisdom 
And lead you along straight paths. 
When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; 
When you run, you will not stumble. 
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; 
Guard it well, for it is your life. 
The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, 
Shining ever brighter till the full light of day." 
Proverbs 4:11-13;18 (NIV)

Sometimes God brings a change or a challenge into our lives to shake up our dependence upon self and turn us back to dependence upon him. We are closest to finding his will for our lives, our happiness and usefulness, when we are completely in the dark waiting for that first gleam of dawn, depending fully on him to cause the sun to rise.