Laced With Grace

It’s New Year’s Eve – a time for reflection and for new beginnings. I put the new pages in my planner and there was a couple of extra “motivational” pages stuck in and one hit me. There was a simple question at the top:

What one thing do you want to change about your personal life?

You can turn that question heavenward:

What one thing do you want to change about your walk with God?

That questions was followed by two directions:

1. what can you do to change it?
2. schedule it in your planner now.

Last year about this time, my friend referred me to a website with the following reflection questions:

1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your home life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
7. Whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? Why?

This is truly a time of reflection. For the first time (ever – in my life), I’m going to be alone on New Year’s Eve. My kids are in two different places and I will have the house to myself. This may be the last Christmas holiday that both of my kids live with me and I want to make the most of this time.

This post is not so much about me “telling”, it’s about you all asking. And that’s a good thing.

Just a couple of more questions – although there are more at this site.

The first question has you look at Scripture: What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?

(I’ve been looking at imputation of righteousness, vs. declaration – and I’m going to go see the “big guy” on that topic – NT Wright.

The second question has you look inward: In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?

(I want to be “fluffier” – less serious. I want to learn how to ski and I want to go snowshoeing. I want to go backpacking. What am I going to do? I’m going to do it.)

What are you all going to do?

A New Year With The Lord

A new year is about to unfold
With new opportunities to explore
Doors will open for new experiences
New adventures with the Lord

Remember not the former things
The things of this past year
The Lord will do new things in us
Much more than we are aware

For He will make a way for us
As we put our trust in Him
And He will guide our every step
By His presence we have within

What God has placed within our hearts
We find we’ll be able to do
If we look for the opportunities
We’ll see the door to go through

We mustn’t let anything hold us back
But rise up and take our place
And be all that God wants us to be
With a fresh touch of His grace

© By M.S.Lowndes

Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers, 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.

I love the fact we serve a God of new beginnings. I can not begin to tell you how many times I have had to have a new beginning. I stumble and fall, but God is there to dust me off and help me move forward. God tells us to always be looking for what is ahead, don’t dwell in the past. Keep the goal in sight.

Isaiah 43:19 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

Sometimes a new beginning could be a change in course. The Lord could be leading you to where you would never guess you would go. For me it was blogging last year. If you even asked me what a blog was last January, I maybe could have mumbled out a response. But now the Lord has blessed me with so many new friendships, and now the blessing of writing a devotional each week. You can not begin to understand how the idea of me “writing” blows my mind, before blogging the only thing I wrote was my grocery list. But look at me now, this is ALL God not Laurel.
Like the verse in Isaiah you may be feeling like you are in a desert or wasteland, but God is there making a way through it all. Keep the goal in sight; know that new adventures are right around the corner. I can not begin to tell you how excited I am to see how God is going to move this next year for me. What about you? Are you excited? Are you ready if God says, “See, I am doing a new thing!”

Heavenly Father,

Thank you that you are a God of new beginnings. I don’t need to dwell in the past. No matter where I have been, or what I have done, you are there to help me start fresh. And you are there encouraging and pushing me toward the goal. Help me to be open to blessings that are unexpected. I thank you ahead of time for the things you will do in my life this next year. Amen

Do you feel it? It is an excitement, a quickening in the soul as we approach a new season of living. I am looking forward to the new year with wonder. Each year God leads me through new adventures so unexpected, they surpass my wildest dreams. A year ago, I never would have conceived God leading me into an online ministry. How He delights and surprises!

Over the past several days, I have felt this familiar quickening. It is a calling of sort…a calling to deepen my prayer life. Several scriptures persist to appear in my thoughts and Bible reading. They are both from an Old Testament book I rarely read…. puzzling?? Maybe not!

Daniel 6:10 (New Living Translation)
But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.

Daniel 9:23 (New Living Translation)
As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice. He explained to me, “Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God.

Daniel practiced quiet prayer more than once a day. I understand why God dearly loves him.

Prayer is our lifeline. Our words spoken in humility can heal, reveal, perceive, direct, revive, inspire, forgive, celebrate, love… (The list goes on and on). Our genuine prayers avail a changed heart, a changed home, a changed country, and a changed world. Let 2007 be the year that our prayer lives deepen to impact God’s Kingdom and change the hearts of many.

Lord God, as we embark upon this new year teach us to know You in a deeper prayer fellowship. You have many things to reveal to us. In Jesus name, I ask You to make us warriors of prayer. Amen

How may I pray for you and the adventures God has in store for your life in the comming year?