January 1 | A New Way
I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:10-14)
Risk is involved with any new venture. The start of the year poses a kind of daring, and this one seems to be standing before us ready to run away saying “catch me if you can.” By God’s grace, we will “take hold” of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us. We need a firm grip if we’re going to do this successfully. The grip is faith. But the mindset is the reminder that we are first in the grip of the One who made us, and loves us, and intends to strengthen us through every trial we face. The wonderful truth is that our problems do not need to be dead-ends; they can be pathways and passages to growth, and the honor that accompanies.
What is required is that we acknowledge that God is greater than we are. When we release our faith into situations that look impossible, He can bring about the change that we never could on our own.
Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. (Mark 11:23)
Naturally, what we ask must be according to His will. As an all-knowing and all-wise Being, we can trust that God knows what is best, and that He will always operate according to truth in every direction. He leads us to bring our hearts, our minds, our entire being before Him and to fellowship with Him every step of the way in this world as His ambassadors.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)
We do not know what this new year will hold. But we know the One who does.
Meditation: Lord Jesus, as this year begins, we resolve to do things in Your strength, not our own. We choose to surrender to Your marvelous ways that are infinitely beyond our calculations, and trust that You are working on our behalf, not only in great events, but down to the most minute detail.
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January 2 | Visual Permanence
Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. (Isaiah 49:16)
We can at times feel abandoned by God. Yet, He challenges us with truth that He will “never leave or forsake us,” which is opposite from what we may be tempted to feel at times. He redirects our thinking from our own difficulty to himself, and to tangible signs of His love for us. There is no greater evidence than the nail-scarred hands of Christ Jesus: they represent the greatest love, most powerful mercy, and the relentless passion He has to save us, to heal us, and to just be with us.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:7-10)
A tattoo is something that identifies the bearer of it. Christ was not and is not ashamed to identify with us. His love has conquered the grave.
It is hard to imagine a perfect being humbling himself, even to the point of death, on behalf of people like you and me. But he willing did, and in the process, created the most indelible tattoos that have ever been: his very body marred to show us how perfect is his love.
While it is hard to imagine how a perfect God could go to such lengths to save and to restore us, He wants us to trust that He did, with childlike faith. He wants us to put our hand in His hand, and lead us to greater freedom through greater dependence on Him.
Meditation: Lord, restore us to greater confidence in You and in Your perfect ways. We acknowledge that Your thoughts and Your ways are above our thoughts and our ways.
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January 3 | Eyes of Faith
It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. (Hebrews 11:31)
God did not disparage Rahab the prostitute for her sins. She was taken at face value and deemed righteous for doing the will of God. This became her new identity, and it utterly eclipsed anything negative about her past. God delights to shock self-righteous people out of their complacency by showing how unconditional his love is for “sinners.” The truth is, we are all in need of the same grace and forgiveness that enables us to live as He intended.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
God encourages us to look at our life situations through the lens of His promises to us. They are greater than anything we have done, or left undone. Just as Rahab promised the godly spies that she would not reveal their whereabouts, so the spies reciprocated by protecting her and her entire family. She proved herself to be a woman of her word.
In the same way, God is faithful to keep the promises He makes to us when we do things His way. He alone is God, He knows what is best, and wants what is best for us! We can only walk in that best when we walk in His ways. He loves to come alongside and show us our truest identity is not the mistakes we have made, but rather, in the righteousness that He gives us that allows us to walk in purpose, truth and integrity.
We can enjoy the fact that our God brings us to a place of dignity in Him because He is our father, and as His beloved children, we get to share in His identity. He understands we are in process, and will work to renew our minds as we open them to Him and allow Him to do what He alone can.
Meditation: God, thank you for seeing us through the lens of Christ Jesus, which is the lens of forgiveness, freedom, and new beginnings. Enable us to walk in the power of your grace into a life of integrity and promises fulfilled.
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January 4 | Crafted on Purpose
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)
What an amazing truth that regardless of our relationship to our mothers and fathers, we have ultimately been created by God, right to the very core of our being. He has formed and fashioned all that we are, and who we will be. He has promised to bring us to good things, no matter our present circumstances.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
We all have great challenges to confront at times, but God blesses us as we trust in him.
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8)
He renews our very life, and keeps us from dryness and fruitlessness, which are not products of difficult times, but rather, of not leaning on Him! How wonderful to rest in the fact that no matter what is happening in our lives, we can be strong and sustained simply because we trust in God. When we live that way, we can be a place of comfort for others, even as a fruiting tree provides shade and sustenance for those around us. He blesses us, and blesses others through us as we abide in Him.
Meditation: Take us Lord where you want us to go in 2017, showing us that first You want us to depend on You and allow you to interrupt our plans for Your glorious plans to take place, not only for our benefit, but for the good of those around us.
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January 5 | Divine Planning
By faith [that is, with an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God] we understand that the worlds (universe, ages) were framed and created [formed, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose] by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. ~Hebrews 11:3
“Formed–put in order–equipped for intended purpose.” In His almighty wisdom and grace, God not only created us, but He put us into place to bring His light and glory into the world as we reflect His goodness to those around us. The places we live, and the things that we have experienced all become opportunities to allow His truth to shine through to others.
We don’t get to choose where we are born, or who our family members are. We may have had experiences that make us question where our lives can possibly be headed, or what good can come from our present circumstances.
But to know that God is powerful enough to have created the world simply by His word is not only a marvelous truth, it is a reminder of His creative power and genius that is at work in the world, and also at work in us. When we are tempted to doubt, it is important to remember that faith is required to “see” this truth.
We can take comfort in the fact that God has not only predetermined who we are, where we will live and what we will do, but He has also designed our faith.
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:3-5)
Meditation: Lord, we choose to call upon the faith You have put within us to do Your will. Like our personal limitations and giftings, we have no control over the measure You have given, but what we do have control over, we choose to invest for Your Kingdom’s sake.
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January 5 | The Found Sheep
Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:4-7)
In a world of so many people, it is amazing to think that God looks after each of us as individuals. God’s love extends to us not only when we are doing well, but even more so when we have gone astray. As a wise shepherd, He goes in pursuit of the one who has wandered off, leaving the rest of the flock behind to rescue the one in danger. And there is not one of us who hasn’t strayed at some point. Remembering this keeps us in line with the truth of who we are without Him. There is no place for arrogance in the body of Christ.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)
Yet what is amazing is that Christ himself came to earth as an individual to save and rescue all of us. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! (John 1:29)
Jesus demonstrated his love for people as individuals, at times traveling to a town to heal only one person there. While there must have been others in need of healing in those places, we can see that no one was too obscure to not only be noticed but to be sought out and made whole by the Shepherd.
We, in turn, must receive Him just as he is, and love those around us despite what they have done. We also need to accept that what Jesus did on the cross to save us is enough. Our good works could never purchase enough because the kind of excellence God requires is found in Him alone.
Meditation: Lord, heal our pain and make us free so that we can move with the heart of the Shepherd: to be willing to go and seek the one who has gone astray, to rescue them from loneliness, from loss, and from harm. To love the wanderer as You love them, with the strength You provide.
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January 6 | The GIft of Righteousness
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:11-14)
When Jesus came, he was the fulfillment of all of God’s requirements of holiness and perfection. The system of temple animal sacrifices was symbolic of the ultimate act of sacrifice, the very Lamb of God.
Not only did God fully and completely accept the sacrifice of Jesus, he also obliterated the need for additional sacrifices to be made to bring about holiness and perfection.
We are called to accept that Jesus’s willingness to hand himself over to death was enough to cleanse us not only from our sin, but also, from the sense that we are guilty and still owe God a penance for wrongs done.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)
The truth is that not only has He given us forgiveness full and free for wrongs done, but even from the effect of a guilty conscience! It is only possible through the shed blood of the precious Lamb, our Jesus.
Meditation: Lord God, help us to remember that no matter what is in our past, our present or future, You have already forgiven us. Please wash over our awareness with your precious blood so that any lingering sense of guilt would be eradicated.
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January 7 | Truth and Transparency
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them…But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. (Matthew 23:2-12)
The mindset of the Kingdom of God is different from that of this earth. When Jesus taught, he took people straight to the heart of the matter and exposed hidden motives. He made an example of religious hypocrites to point to something better.
The great danger in being “religious” is that it puts more emphasis on the outward appearance and on performance than it does the inside of the heart. Yet, our Creator sees all.
The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. (I Samuel 16:7)
Jesus taught that our identity should not be in any title we think we should assume, even if it is what we do. He pointed back to God as the source of all leadership and life itself.
Meditation: May we point directly to the author of Life through the lives we lead. May we take delight in the skills He has given us to serve others, knowing that we both remain free and help free others when we walk in this truth, with transparency.