One More Time

It is about to happen, again! Every year it happens, time passes by and it seems that the same themes dominate our conversations and our lives. The same problems, the same habits cling to us like the proverbial barnacle on a rock. We can’t seem to break free.

King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”  How do we break the monotonous cycle that dominate us every year?

2017 can be a complete bust or a period of time in which we live in rapt expectation of what is going to happen next. 

In 2016, God authored some amazing highs and some very difficult lows in my life. It has been my goal to have a balance to realize that God is not with me more in the good times than He is in the tough times.  We who preach the Word of God as our live’s passion know that, or do we?  We can almost touch the sky with the passion that God gives us when we preach and the Word of God is received with open hearts. But, on those days when some well intentioned saint comes to criticize us, we quickly forget the good that God has done. But at the same time, God is helping us trust in Him and not in our ability or lack thereof to preach.

As I begin another year, I am full of uncertainty,  but I have a goal. It isn’t earth-shattering, or worth of writing a book. It is plain, simple and courageous on a certain level. It comes from the book of Revelation, yes, I did say Revelation. As you read that book, you see some pretty amazing things but there is one thread that runs through it. It is almost in every chapter.

Watch this play out through the book, in Chapter 1:17, after receiving the revelation of the person of Jesus Christ, here is John’s response: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” John’s worship experience completely enveloped him with the awesomeness of the person of Jesus Christ! He could not even stand up! Then, at the end of Revelation, John has a powerful experience that made him fall down and worship the angel who delivered the message to him. In Chapter 22:9, here is the message for you and I for 2017, the angel commanded John, “…Worship God.”

So here it is, my friend, our lives are to be full of worship for who God is and what He has done for us.  He is to be our motivation, our prize, our total reason for being! I don’t know what will happen to you this year, I can’t predict the future, but, if God is at the heart of who you are and what you will accomplish, you will have a successful year!

That is my challenge to you: Put God first in all of who you are and what you will do. Even though King Solomon tried many things that he thought that would bring him happiness, he concludes his book saying this, and I leave these words to you as a challenge in 2017,

“The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God (worship) and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

God bless you in 2017!