HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yes, I know it's 3 days late...guess I'm off to a bad start:( Just so you know, ORGANIZATION is one of the TOP things on my TO DO list for JANUARY!!!!!!!

Don't you love new beginnings? There is something about January that promises CHANGE....PROMISE....SECOND CHANCES! Like a brand new sheet of paper or a new notebook or a fresh box of crayons!!!!!!! All the old scribbles, doodles and messy pages are a thing of the past. Nothing staring you in the face but a nice blank, white sheet of paper just waiting for you to start fresh.

I always begin January with great hopes for change. Change in habits, change in weight, change in discipline, change in organizational skills. Somewhere about mid-month my enthusiasm begins to wane and I fall off the wagon, defeated and disgusted with myself. Maybe you relate.

It can be that way in our walk with Christ, too. We have a mountain-top experience. We re-commit ourselves to being more disciplined in Bible study and quiet time. We vow to confess our sins daily, to forgive more, to be more patient, kind and to lavish grace. We fully intend to be more disciplined and to be a 100% fully devoted follower of Christ. Then...we fail, we falter and we find ourselves wondering what happened to all of our good intentions.

Wow...you must think. You are sure starting the New Year on a sour note. Not at all. I'm just being real. That is the reality for all of us because we are human. It does not surprise God. It may surprise US, but it does not surprise Him.

What we must remember is that God does not love us based on our performance. HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!! He just loves.

We humans judge each other mercilessly on the basis of performance,but God does not. So we must stop beating ourselves up over our failures and shortcomings. Instead, we need to just confess them to the Lord, repent even if it is for the 399,000th time, and ask His forgiveness...which He will lovingly give, and ask for the strength to press on, leaning on Him for help not to make the same mistakes again. He knows we are but dust. He knows our weaknesses and frailties.

The point is we never stop pressing on. As Paul put it:


12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (Phillipians 3: 12-14 New Living Translation)


So, my dear friends, let us press on in our pursuit of holiness. And when we fall... and we will... let us repent quickly, seek forgiveness and get up and keep moving! With our faces toward Him, our hearts open to His leading, our ears tuned to His voice and our focus only on Him. In 2009 may we seek Him with all of our heart and may our greatest desire be to point others to Him!!

God bless you all!!!!!!!!