(1 Corinthians 10:23 NLT) You say, “I am allowed to do anything”–but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”–but not everything is beneficial.
Happy New Year! I have not sent out Today’s Word in a week and a half and I truly enjoyed the break. In the 15 years I have been writing Today’s Word this is the longest break I have had and I must tell you that I enjoyed it and missed it. I enjoyed it, because we all need rest and time to rejuvenate ourselves in the Lord, but I also missed it because since I have been doing it for so long, it is part of my weekday routine and it felt strange to sleep in a few days.
I pray you enjoyed your Christmas and New Year’s celebrations and I pray it was an enjoyable time for you and yours. On Monday night, when the clock struck midnight, we crossed over into 2013 and for most it felt like crossing a threshold. In one sense, it was a day like any other, but in another sense it was not. New Years days give us an opportunity to mark an increment of time in our lives. A year is long enough to set long term goals, but not too long to where the time does not go by faster than we imagined. At the beginning of the year we often seek God for direction and by the beginning of the next year we are often struggling to remember what we said we were going to do.
As we progress through life (in time) the goal is to also incrementally progress towards God’s overall expected end for our lives. Paul reminds us, in our text, that while we can do anything we want to do, everything we CAN do is not something we SHOULD do. With that in mind, I am led to share a few practical points about this time. A New Year gives us an opportunity to:
1. Take self-inventory. We should all periodically take the time to consider/reconsider whether we are where we want to be and heading where we want to go.
2. Take a navigation check. We are heading in a certain direction and a New Year is a great time to check our navigation-heading to ensure we are still on the path to God’s desired destination for our lives.
3. Check the quality of our decisions. During the New Year we should take a hard look in the mirror to ensure we are consciously making an alignment with God’s assignment for us, for this season; in order to maximize this season so we can enter into the next. You are where you are today because of the decisions you have made that have either taken you towards or away from God’s best. If you have not made good decisions in the past, this is a great time to start aligning your decisions with God’s will.
4. Check your Spiritual leadership. I share this last, but it is perhaps the most important. If you are connected (spiritually) to the God-ordained church you are supposed to be, then you will hear Prophetic Word that will help guide our decisions this year and at the end of the year you will be incrementally closer to maximizing your purpose and potential. Jesus said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4). The Word that comes from God, that we are supposed to live by, is NOT JUST the Word of God that is in the Bible. Listen to me here. The Bible is the Word of God, without question, and it is infallible, inerrant, and inexhaustible. I love the Word of God and it contains what the Lord said. However, God is not done speaking. When you connect to the right church you are able to hear what the Lord IS SAYING to you, NOW, based upon what He already SAID. If you are connected to the wrong church, you are going to hear the wrong things, and it will lead to wrong decisions. However, the contrary is also true. I cannot overstate the importance of being connected to the right church, in order to hear what the Father wants you to know this year.
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for having blessed me richly thus far in life. I look back to 2012 and to all the years before that and I say, “Thank You.” You have been better to me than I deserve and honestly better to me than I would have been to myself. Your grace, mercy, and loving kindness are amazing to me. I will never cease to give You praise for saving me through Your Son Jesus, my Lord, and for keeping me all these years. As I enter 2013 I make time to take the time to evaluate where I am, where I have been, and the direction in which I am heading. I want to ensure I am in alignment with Your divine assignment for my life. I declare, by faith, that I submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit and I make whatever course-corrections are necessary to remain on the path to Your desired destination for my life. I will also ensure I am connected to the right church, receiving the right Word, that will help influence my decisions this year, so that by this time next year I will be able to say that I am incrementally closer to maximizing my purpose and potential while I am in the land of the living. I declare this by faith! In Jesus’ name.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
