Scriptural Foundation:
John 14:15-27; 25-27 New King James Version (NKJV)
17 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Reflection:
As the glow of Christmas and New Year’s fade into our rear-view mirrors and the horizon of the 2019 stretches out in front of us; I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but feel a mix between exhaustion and expectation…like my glass is half full.
Christmas is my favorite day of the year! The remembrance of the birth of Christ, ushered in from eternity into time – God’s perfect gift of redemption. Though, the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day can be a pressure cooker of emotions that climatically release, like fireworks on the thirty-first of December; the new year is also symbolic of a clean slate of possibility and opportunity. What a fitting time to remember the birth of our Lord at the close of all things old and familiar; on the cusp of all things new. Although God’s gift to us has since left the earth (exited time back into eternity), He has left a part of Himself in the Holy Spirit. Jesus is truly the gift that never stops giving. An eternal present wrapped in the folds of time. Can a calendar really define the evolution that the Lord has brought in your life?
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”.
– Lamentations 3:22-24
Instead of looking at 2019 through the same old earthly lens, look at it from an eternal perspective. Our days on this earth are numbered and our Lord Jesus can return at any time, either way you look at it, thinking from a calendar perspective is unacceptable. Instead we must exam ourselves on a moment to moment basis. Our thoughts…our words…our actions.
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. – 1 Corinthians 15:51-53
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
God gave us His son and when He completed His assignment, Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit. When you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you invited the Holy Spirit to take residence in your heart. Spending time in prayer and meditating on the Word daily, will change your calendar view to an eternal view. We are the Body of Christ; our assignment is to touch any and everyone we meet for the Lord. So slow down in this new year, take the time to love on people whether they are loveable or not. Make your light shine for all to see, then you too will become a channel for the Gift that never stops giving.
Seeking Revelation:
Grab your notebook:
- Think back to the best gift that you ever received? Write down in detail, the event – how you felt, what did you do with the item, what ultimately happened to that gift – did you play/use it until it was all used up?
- Think back to the first time you accepted the Lord into your heart? Write down in detail, the moment – the circumstances leading up to it, that moment, and then the days/weeks/months to follow.
- Now write down a vision – a life with no boundaries – what would you be doing?
- Is that vision earthly or eternally purposed?
- Ask the Holy Spirit to help you catch the vision that the Lord has for your life. More likely than not you are living far below your heavenly potential.
Remember Saints…
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” – Matthew 19:26