New Beginnings

One of the of the greatest challenges of the Christian life is the continual need to be reminded that it is God who is in control - not us. This is no more evident at the start of a New Year when we are all setting our resolutions and goals.

The natural man will bring forth vision and desires from his own heart and then bring that to God and ask Him to bless it. The spiritual man will go to God and from the throne room of heaven receive what God desires for the coming year.

Our obedience to this vision will automatically receive not only Gods blessing but also his empowerment to fulfill what would seem at times an impossible task. Do you see the difference? The former has us in control with God doing our bidding, while the latter has the right perspective. We are not the master, merely grateful servants.

This was King David's perspective when he wrote in Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. "

The Hebrew word for "delight" means to entwine, to braid, it speaks of us drawing close to God almost like a vine wrapping itself around a tree and becoming one with it. As we do this by prayer, meditation, bible study, fellowship with God's people, worship etc we start to learn and appreciate God's heart for His world. The more we grow like Him, we will find His desires becoming our desires. This leads us to the second part of this verse where we see God granting our desires... not because they originate from us but because they echo His desires. So this coming year, let us focus on spending time finding God's heart and let that formulate our vision and goals for 2011.