This Year, I Swear I’m Gonna……..
A Devotional
© 2001 Steve Lattier and Men’s Help Ministries
Well it is a new year and even a new millennium, I pray that God’s richest blessings are poured out in your lives this year. I’d like to ask, by a show of hands, how many of you made a resolution to do or not to do something in the coming year? OK that was kinda silly (especially if any of you did raise your hand-ha!) I have made many resolutions over the yearsto start eating right, stop doing some sin or another, control my language or whatever I thought needed to be done to be a better me than I had been in the past twelve months. We can easily point out which qualities, in ourselves, that we despise the most from year to year and those are often what winds up on our new years resolution list. Wow did I really say that, a “list”? Could it be that even as Christians we are so imperfect as to have a “list” of things that need work? Yes its true we are really just plain people who happen to have given our lives to Christ. We are still human and hampered by sin and the desires of our flesh. The bible even tells us that we aren’t perfect and it is kind of comforting to know that God knows it too. While He still wants us to try to come to Him and have personal Holiness, He will still meet us where we are every single day! Look at these verses:
The Word:
Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Ephesians 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.
God knows our faults and failings even more intimately than we do, and yet He takes us as we come to Him every single day. All we must do is show up with our heart in the right place. God wants us to be very careful what we say with our mouths. He is different that way, He’s God. He cannot even utter something that won’t come to pass. Think about it if God says it, it happens! So naturally being made in His image there is much power in our speech also and God does not want us just running off at the mouth so to speak. This year I resolve to… I swear I am gonna…. This is it, I swear to.. don’t even go there! God would have us curb our over active tongues, say what we mean and mean what we say. I think that having a new direction to focus on in the new year is great, but let us not swear to doing it There is an interesting passage in the Old Testament that deals with this.
The Word
Leviticus 5:4 “ `Or if a person thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil--in any matter one might carelessly swear about--even though he is unaware of it, in any case when he learns of it he will be guilty.”
God sure wants you to be the best that you can be, but He doesn’t want the pursuit of that idea to get in the way of your relationship with Him. All to often folks with long lists all but forget God on that list. Sure go ahead loose a few pounds like you wanted to, stop smoking, or cussing, spend more time with your family. Do all those things but do them with God first! If you are going to have resolutions then make Godly ones. Resolve to do the things in your life that God would have you do! Set your heart and with prayer and fasting let God change your life. I have two things on my “to-do list” for the year 2001. The first is to spend more time building my relationship with God and the second is to try to become a more obedient servant of His. We should focus on this one, this year and all throughout every year, not simply for the first week of January.
The Word
Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: " `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'*
I think now that if we can focus on that one then I am willing to bet that we would be amazed at how all those other things started taking care of themselves! Amen?
Pray with me Father you know all those things in me that need work, you know even those secret things that I have never told. Father your Word says that you love me so much that it covers all my mess-ups. Help me in this new year Father, I want to have a closer walk with you. Teach me how to love you with reckless abandon. Give me the strength to obey you even when the pressure is on or my flesh is weak. I need you to fill me every day of the year Father. Help me to be a better servant of yours. I love you and praise your Holy name. Thank you for your answers to my prayer this prayer that I ask in Jesus name. Amen!
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