Christmas is over for another year. By now you probably have all of your decorations put away, all of your gifts opened and all the parties behind you. And you are probably ready to get back to business as usual, back to the old routine.
As much as I love all the decorations and other glories of
Christmas, I must admit that in a way, it’s pretty comforting to restore
everything back to its normal order, to get back to the familiar.
But what if there was something
greater on the horizon that God wanted you to take part in? What if God was
saying, “Don’t settle into the norm of your routine. Come with Me instead.”?
That may not sound very comfortable or even intriguing until we realize the
Creator of the universe may be calling our name to come up higher and get into
stride with Him instead of passing our time in this life with the mundane pursuits
of this world.
Think for just a moment what could be accomplished if we all
followed God’s path for us instead of our own routine. I know new things can
seem pretty scary at the beginning, but everything we have ever accomplished
was new to us at some point. Are we past reaching ahead because we have found a
comfortable niche in our lives that is holding us contentedly in place?
In Isaiah 43:18 and 19, God says, “Do not
remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do
a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even
make a road in the wilderness and rivers
in the desert.”
God spoke those words to His people Israel, but they have been
burning in my heart for this new year, 2023. Just maybe this is the year for
all of God’s people to rise up out of sleep from the normal, everyday
habits of this life that rule our time and consume our energy. Just maybe it’s
time to find out what God is doing and get into pace with Him.
If God can make
a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, (and He certainly can), just
imagine what He can do with us if we will just believe Him, surrender to Him,
and obey.
Mr. Henry Varley
once said to D. L. Moody, in Moody’s early years of ministry, “It remains to be
seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him.” Moody
said to himself, “Well I will be that man.” And he became a man that God used significantly
because he depended on God and followed His leading. D.L. Moody was not
schooled in philosophy, psychology or, technically, not even in theology. But he
was a man who studied the Word of God extensively, a man of prayer and a man surrendered
to Jesus. And he went on to do great things for God’s kingdom because he worked
with God.
Think of all the
things you are actively pursuing. Are they centered on Jesus, or are they
something that you do because you’ve always done it or it seems a good thing to
do? Should we re-think our priorities and set everything in order according to
God’s purpose and His Word? Or just return to business as usual?
Maybe you are
right in the center of God’s will and making progress in His kingdom. Praise
God for you if you are. That is exactly what He wants. He wants His children to
work alongside Him in the work He has for us. He has chosen to place His Holy
Spirit in His people so we can reach the hearts of this world.
If God spoke to
you, would you hear Him? If you heard Him, would you say ‘yes’? That seems to
be such a simple question, but there are a lot of “but what ifs” that tangle up
our answer. Let this year be the year, this day be the day, this moment be the moment
that you say, “Here I am, Lord, send me.” Throw off the restraints and let God
do something new in you.
Sometimes
‘something new’ isn’t a new location, but a new heart or allowing the Holy
Spirit to give you the power or revelation of God’s Word that you have been
missing out on. It may be something new within you that changes your whole life
and begins to change the lives of others, too.
The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:12-14, “Not
that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I
press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold
of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward
the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Then,
not long before he was beheaded, Paul wrote these victorious words to Timothy. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept
the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only,
but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
I
want to be able to say that I have completed what God has assigned me to do and
that I have done it with joy, without giving up, turning back or refusing to
keep moving forward. I don’t want to disappoint Jesus and I don’t want to miss
out on working side by side with Him.
There
are numerous obstructions and thought patterns that can keep us from walking in
the “new thing” God has for us. Don’t let them hold you back from God’s best.
Thoughts
of all the wrong we have done and the times we have rejected Jesus can make us
feel unworthy of coming to Him now. But all of that can be washed away by the
blood of the Lamb. When we come to Jesus in repentance and surrender ourselves
completely to Him, we can begin a whole new walk without condemnation. We can
be empowered by the Spirit of God. Don’t allow the sins of the past to cause
you to remain in sin today. There is hope and a future in Christ when we submit
our lives to Him and begin a new walk in the kingdom of God. Let the past be
the past. Look forward to what God can and will do through willing vessels surrendered
to Him.
Maybe
you haven’t been rejecting Jesus. You have been serving Him, attending church
and doing all the things you think are right. But your life isn’t free and you
are trying to live the Christian life without the freedom of God’s Spirit.
Working for Jesus and working with Jesus are two very different things. Working
for Him comes from us. It puts the burden of success or failure on us. Working
with Him is simply doing what He says for us to do, saying what He says for us
to say and allowing His Holy Spirit to guide us and enable us. When we are
surrendered to Him, He will guide and enable. We don’t make the plans. We just
follow His.
A
new year always feels like we are getting a fresh start. But it’s not the only time we can start
over. When we go through a difficult
season in our lives and finally come through to the other side, we face a new
beginning. When we have failed and are able to put it behind us and press on,
it’s a new beginning. When we choose to forgive someone for the ‘unthinkable’
and move ahead, it’s a new beginning for us and for them.
Life
is full of new beginnings if we allow them.
They happen when we close the door to what is behind us and choose to
move forward. We can’t change the past, but we can learn from it, using it as a
springboard to propel us forward so we can have a fresh start for the future.
“Do you need a
new beginning? Have you let go of the
past and allowed God to open the door to what He has for you in the future?” We
don’t have to be afraid to take that step, because we will not be alone. The
Spirit of God will walk with us and uphold us. He will show us the way and give
us the words to speak. He will show us things that we could never understand in
our own wisdom.
Isaiah 42:9
says, “Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare:
before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
The past is the
past. Don’t get stuck there waiting for everything to be just right before you
say ‘yes’ to Jesus. He is not back there idling and waiting for you to catch
up. He has gone on ahead and beckons you to follow Him into life more abundantly,
an existence in the kingdom of God that produces more life than we ever thought
possible. Sometimes we just need to let go before we can reach out and grasp
what God is handing us now.
The
past has brought us to this moment, but it is no longer.
We
now have today.
What
are we doing with it?
