No New Year Resolution -- Just a Continuation
For the new year there are no resolutions. What I seek is a continuation. Though it is a continuation, I desire for it to be a better one than the year before. Call it a resolution if you must, but there are no hard numbers, no specific goals enumerated, no date at which I can or should call myself a failure for having not done what I sought to do.
This continuation, I pray, is by the power of the Spirit (Zech. 4:6). I cannot do this on my own. It is too much for me but when I am weak then He is strong. So the key is not to pursue the latest trends and fads at being the best me that I can be. Oh, I'll read and learn but the key is admitting that I am weak and that when I am in that condition, God is most present and powerful to accomplish in me His purposes and plans (2 Cor. 12:6-10).
Our incredibly powerful God delights in using little people to do incredibly big things (Judges 6:15; 2 Samuel 7:8-9).* Therefore, if I exalt myself to being big, I minimize His glory and make Him seem smaller. The more I wonder at Him rather than at me or anything that I have supposedly created or built, the larger He seems. And that is not because I have made Him to be something that He is not but I have stopped trying to make me something that I am not. Instead, I have come closer to seeing the Lord in all of His awesomeness while understanding that I could never totally grasp His immensity.
I see too much pride in Christians circles, like Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:30), showing off the great things that they supposedly have done. Yet who has made man's mouth? Who created the deaf, the blind (Exodus 4:10-12)? Look at the great and mighty things accomplished by the Lord through the quadriplegic Joni Eareckson and the blind hymn-writer Fanny Crosby. So many will pray that God will make them healthy, wealthy and prosperous. I pray that God will make me like His Son (Romans 8:28-30) and like Joni and Fanny and if it means the opposite of health and wealth, then so be it. When I am weak, then He is strong.
It will also be, I pray, by my obedience to the Word of God. Again, this takes the Spirit's empowerment and His wisdom and direction. It is easy for us to get to a point where we feel as if we have attained some kind of higher knowledge than our peers. One of the great things in being a small church pastor that God has led on this journey in the most interesting of ways is that I KNOW that there are legions smarter, wiser and more able with the Scriptures than I am. I can't out-Greek or Hebrew them but I can seek to be a leader in obeying God's Word and not being a hearer (reader/student) only (James 1:22-25).
Recently I began dwelling on one verse that I have sought to master. I don't mean that I began memorizing it. I did that years ago. Regrettably, I thought that I have been obeying this verse yet in recent interactions I feel as if there is much improvement that is needed. Therefore, I will be dwelling on it, rehashing it, reminding myself of it and its implications and applications for my life until I feel like I have largely accomplished what it commands me to do. Once I feel reasonably satisfied with that, I will move on to another and repeat. As the Scripture says, the purpose for "hiding" God's Word in our hearts, is so that we don't sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). I don't want familiarity; I want to finish well (2 Timothy 4:6-8). Perhaps that will happen one verse at a time.
There you have it, my continuation for the new year. Call it a resolution, if you must. However, I like to think of it as trusting Him who began a good work in me to be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6).
*note that the asterisk indicates whole passages have been included in the link in order to give the context of the verses
This continuation, I pray, is by the power of the Spirit (Zech. 4:6). I cannot do this on my own. It is too much for me but when I am weak then He is strong. So the key is not to pursue the latest trends and fads at being the best me that I can be. Oh, I'll read and learn but the key is admitting that I am weak and that when I am in that condition, God is most present and powerful to accomplish in me His purposes and plans (2 Cor. 12:6-10).
Our incredibly powerful God delights in using little people to do incredibly big things (Judges 6:15; 2 Samuel 7:8-9).* Therefore, if I exalt myself to being big, I minimize His glory and make Him seem smaller. The more I wonder at Him rather than at me or anything that I have supposedly created or built, the larger He seems. And that is not because I have made Him to be something that He is not but I have stopped trying to make me something that I am not. Instead, I have come closer to seeing the Lord in all of His awesomeness while understanding that I could never totally grasp His immensity.
I see too much pride in Christians circles, like Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:30), showing off the great things that they supposedly have done. Yet who has made man's mouth? Who created the deaf, the blind (Exodus 4:10-12)? Look at the great and mighty things accomplished by the Lord through the quadriplegic Joni Eareckson and the blind hymn-writer Fanny Crosby. So many will pray that God will make them healthy, wealthy and prosperous. I pray that God will make me like His Son (Romans 8:28-30) and like Joni and Fanny and if it means the opposite of health and wealth, then so be it. When I am weak, then He is strong.
It will also be, I pray, by my obedience to the Word of God. Again, this takes the Spirit's empowerment and His wisdom and direction. It is easy for us to get to a point where we feel as if we have attained some kind of higher knowledge than our peers. One of the great things in being a small church pastor that God has led on this journey in the most interesting of ways is that I KNOW that there are legions smarter, wiser and more able with the Scriptures than I am. I can't out-Greek or Hebrew them but I can seek to be a leader in obeying God's Word and not being a hearer (reader/student) only (James 1:22-25).
Recently I began dwelling on one verse that I have sought to master. I don't mean that I began memorizing it. I did that years ago. Regrettably, I thought that I have been obeying this verse yet in recent interactions I feel as if there is much improvement that is needed. Therefore, I will be dwelling on it, rehashing it, reminding myself of it and its implications and applications for my life until I feel like I have largely accomplished what it commands me to do. Once I feel reasonably satisfied with that, I will move on to another and repeat. As the Scripture says, the purpose for "hiding" God's Word in our hearts, is so that we don't sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). I don't want familiarity; I want to finish well (2 Timothy 4:6-8). Perhaps that will happen one verse at a time.
There you have it, my continuation for the new year. Call it a resolution, if you must. However, I like to think of it as trusting Him who began a good work in me to be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6).
*note that the asterisk indicates whole passages have been included in the link in order to give the context of the verses
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