Happy New Year All! We made it! Praise God! You didn't think it was by chance that you made it to see another year, did you? We are blessed to see another day, whether you believe in a higher power or not, He is the ultimate life saver and preserver and I am thankful to be here.
I remember starting off 2014 and feeling pumped, amped, hyped (I'm so NY, ha) about new beginnings and I was very eager to see what the Lord had in store for me in my second year of walking with Him. I was ready! Let's go God, me and you! 'Till the wheels fall off!
Such excitement, I know. I still feel that way but, and this is a huge but, somewhere along my journey I bought into the lie that everything would be hunky dory. I knew there would be some pain, some suffering (tis life) but the stripping and dying to 'self' daily (becoming selfless) - um, where they do that at?
I didn't sign up for that! Right? I mean, I kind of did and I knew that but I was hoping that I would bypass that. I was hoping that the suffering, if you will, would really be temporary and by temporary I mean two days.
I like to think of myself as a strong person but the things that have taken place over the last year have truly tested my faith and have increased my faith all the while. I won't go into it now, perhaps that'll be a different post altogether but what I am communicating to you is that we must be careful of what we come into the new year expecting.
I was expecting open doors, favor, answered prayers, spiritual growth, opportunities and thankfully I can say that those things did happen but they did not come without a price and they certainly didn't come wrapped in the beautiful package I expected.
I went through a season of just letting go of things that I wanted for myself and that I thought just made sense in my life so why not keep them. I was led (some may call it a gut feeling) to leave my home church and go to another church, leave my place of employment, apply to a ministerial preparation program by way of seminary, leave the acting and auditions behind -- I had to let go of everything that I found comfort in order to step into the new things He had already prepared for me.
Every time I left something behind, there was a piece of me that was gone with it hence the dying to self and your fleshly desires. It has been said that we are spiritual beings having a human experience and often times what we desire comes from the humanistic approach to life; that part of us that is lacking and broken and seeks to fill the void with material and tangible things.
All of those things that I desired or wanted, I had to let go of because there was an emptying out that needed to happen in my life so that I could see, experience, and know that all I really needed to fill that void was Him. How would God show me that? By GENTLY taking away all of the things that I relied upon either for comfort, pleasure, ignorance - whatever it was, it had to go.
Way easier said than done, my friends. I am not sitting here behind a computer preaching, I am sharing how hard it was to let go but it has benefitted me beyond what mere words can explain and no, I'm not just saying that. Please see my heart, I have grown so much in a year because of the stripping down. When your source for everything is God, you see how much you really do need Him and how short we fall when we use our human wisdom and abilities. He is supernatural, deified, sovereign -- we, are not. I write that because I've seen the supernatural occur in my own life, I've experienced it.
As we go in to this new year full of hope and with great expectation, it made me think of how every year we profess to change something about ourselves and we list off new goals and resolutions and we say things like "New Year, New Me" and we leave behind all of the junk of the past year (not forgetting what it taught us, I hope) and this word "NEW" consumes us. That is the word of every year, new. New fitness goals, new boyfriend, new career, new diet, new attitude, new car, new plan, new friends, new travels, and a new god for some because some of these things become idols and God becomes second.
What about a newfound faith? What about the good NEWs? As in the plural of new -- NEWS. Let that be the word of the year - NEWS!
News that doesn't change. News that is constant. News that isn't biased, hello Fox News. News that truly changes us and gives us hope. News that gives you strength to keep going despite wanting to throw in the towel. News that Jesus is Lord and we no longer have to feel abandoned, or feel orphaned, stressed, discouraged -- He is the Good News.
He is the only one who has helped me reach those goals that I've set for myself daily (who needs a new year when you have a new day) because when I tried it on my own, I wasn't successful. Maybe you have been but I will go out on a limb and say that despite all your material gains and success, there is something you feel is missing. There is a void somewhere that you've either been ignoring, suppressing, or filling with other things - temporal things. Things that soon become old and the new year comes and you replace it with some other thing. Instead of doing the new thing, try a new thing. Try faith. Try Jesus.
I know we prefer new things with all the glamour it brings and hope it gives but the new thing loses it's value over time, doesn't it? Hellooooo, iPhone 6 plus.
I join you in wanting to be a better version of yourself, that's what I'm seeking to do as well. What I found was that the better version of myself is in Christ. He makes me better. He makes me strong. He makes me new.
Here's to a great new year, to believers and non-believers alike!
A year filled with the GOOD NEWS!
L'Chaim.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Glory to God.
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