It is a new year, again. 2011 is gone and 2012 is ahead, filled with possibilities and potential. For some, it can be drudgery to enter a new year, and for others it is a brand new, clean slate. Many make a list of resolutions to ensure a better new year: to be a better person, exercise, even read the Bible through the year.
My one resolution, though I don’t like the connotation of the word, is to seek God more. Period. I want to see Him more, hear Him more, and know Him better. I want 2012 to be full of His presence in my life. One word that has been echoing in my spirit for the last couple of months is rest. He has been dealing with me on Sabbatismos; finding rest in God. This echoing is beyond church on Sunday and more sleep. It also means more than simply spending more time with Him, though I intend to do just that.
Sabbatismos, to me, is learning to rest in the promises of God. God has promised me many things; it is not always easy to believe they will come to pass. Sometimes I question if I am going crazy; or I try to make things happen when they don’t come to pass as I envisioned. Like Abraham and Sarah, and many others before us, we laugh thinking things impossible; we attempt to bring things about in our own way. Yet the great cloud of witnesses that went before us, though they did doubt, laugh, manipulate to see God’s promises come to pass, eventually made it into the Hebrews 11 famous Hall of Faith. How did they? The Bible says they did not waver in their faith, but we read their stories, we know they questioned God ~ laughed even and attempted to usurp God’s powers for the completion of their promises.
I believe the transition happened when they came to the end of themselves; realizing that only God can fulfill what He puts in our hearts. The stability in their faith came when they believed what God told them and entered into His rest ~ the rest of God performing His Word.
I want a new year; I want to be faithful. I want to do what God needs me to do to see His Word performed in my life. I want God’s voice and presence permeating my life in 2012. I refuse to have a repeat of 2011—or the previous two decades for that matter. In order for that to happen, I have to have a vision for the new year ~ I must be able to see myself in the life I want. This is not flippantly daydreaming, but having vision. Seek God’s Word and presence ~ for a Word for your year and meditate and pray over that Word; for He is faithful that promised (Hebrews 10:23).
Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.” Jeremiah 1:12 NASB
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