A New Year When I was young, I would follow the tradition of making a New Year’s resolution. It would include a change in my life for the better encompassing a number of different areas through the years. Although I had good intentions, I was setting myself up for discouragement. It would only take days or even weeks but somehow I would mess up feeling like a total failure that eventually I would just give up. As time went on I decided instead of making one big resolution, I would break down every area of my life and make goals. Some were big and some were small, but at the end of the year I could see the progress I was making. This sufficed for many years enabling me to accomplish many things. Although everything on the list had not been completed, many were and they became stepping stones to achieve the final goals. We all have dreams and visions of who and where we want to be in life. We make our plans but somehow because of unforeseen tragedy, loss, heartbreak and choices whether right or wrong things didn’t turn out the way we planned. It can be quite discouraging. As children we are taught bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people but then life happens. The reality of truth in this world because of sin is bad things can happen to good people and good things can happen to bad people. As I have grown older I have learned life is not a fairytale, although every one of us wish it was. But God knew before the foundations of the world where we would be right now. He knew the struggles and the challenges, the outcomes and the disappointments, the successes and the failures we would have to endure in this world. Where we lose focus is in that reality of truth. Throughout the church we are taught the power of positive thinking only focusing on the good parts of scripture and dismissing the bad as though they don’t exist. Like the teaching we receive as children. We have taken the Word of God out of context wanting the promises of God but we don’t do what it says in order to obtain these promises. But what if the same promise as in Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future came as a condition? God’s people were in the midst of bearing the consequences of their own sin and the sins done against them for 70 years when this promise came. God had not abandoned them but allowed what was necessary in order to transform them into the people they needed to be. During that 70 years they endured great hardships addressing and sifting out their true character. Although they were chosen by God, beloved of God their sinful nature caused them to be disobedient and rebel against God’s word whether intentional or in ignorance. Allowing them to bear these hardships was a tool like a surgeon removing a cancerous tumors in order to destroy that which was destructive within them. From a macro perspective it was not to harm them but to heal them enabling them to see their true selves in order to promote genuine repentance in restoring their relationship with God. Through this experience they would see God’s faithfulness learning to depend on Him. It would remove all pride and pretense enabling them to see and respond to God with their whole heart. Each year as God’s people celebrated their New Years, it was a reminder of God’s creation of Adam and Eve and man’s role in God’s creation. Although their celebration was focused on self- improvement it was done in a different way. It started as a season of reflection, 10 days of repentance resolving the issues of the past. A time of reflection and repentance upon ones wrongdoings over the year to both seek and offer forgiveness to those that have been hurt by their sin and those who have hurt them. As we have seen in the news and within our own lives, if our sins are not dealt with, they can come back to haunt us. Either in unresolved pain, shame, fear of exposure or avoidance of those we have hurt affecting the way we think, feel and respond. In order to let go and move forward into the future, we must address our past. The sins we have done, the sins we have done against another and our responses to the sins done against us. The application for the origination of the word repentance was used when traveling. There were little to no road signs. As a traveler would begin their journey they would at times encounter crossroads. Some would turn to the left or to the right and continue their journey. When they came to the realization they made a wrong turn they had a choice to either continue or to repent. To repent was to turn around retracing their steps going back to the very spot they had made their error and in turn make the decision to go in the right direction. We have a tendency to focus on ourselves without accountability or taking responsibility regarding our sin. As Christians we will say the sinner’s prayer, confess our sins to God and even commit to make changes in our behavior. As we leave the altar, we consider ourselves free yet many even after this event will still carry within them regret, guilt, shame and sorrow for the things we have done. Have you ever thought why? Deep down within us we know our sin has hurt another. We try and brush it off acting like we are free from guilt but the truth is we have not fully repented. We have not been willing to humble ourselves acknowledging our sins and asking for forgiveness from those we have hurt nor have we truly been able to forgive those who have sinned against us. We have missed the step of retracing our steps and resolving our actions that we have done one to another. Although we cry out for justice for the sins done against us, we expect the ones we have sinned against to bear ours sins we have done against them without justice. In doing so, both our victim and our soul will carry within it the pain and the regret of our past. Therefore the past still has a hold of us because we are not fully healed. In James 5:16 it says, confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The desire of God’s heart is not to harm us but to heal us from the effects of sin, whether it is our own or the sins done against us. As we begin this New Year may God grant us the courage and the grace needed to address and resolve these issues bringing freedom and healing within ourselves and others. May He guide our steps enabling us to let go of our pride to walk in humility in true repentance. May we be increasingly filled with the Spirit of the Lord in all Wisdom and Insight, Discernment and Knowledge, Might and the Fear of the Lord. May we become a people who God has designed us to be and fulfill the purposes of God in which we were made. May we see with our eyes the fulfillment of God’s promises and experience His love and favor in ways we never thought possible. May all grace and peace abound to us in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ from this time forth and forever. Amen.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:11:00 +0000
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