New Year Musings

This was originally posted on the White Fields Church Blog

New Year is kind of a strange holiday, don't you think? I mean, what are we really celebrating? We are not celebrating a great event of history that changed the world, like we do at Christmas and Easter. All we are really celebrating is that we ran out of days on our calendar, and now we need to start a new one!

But the value of the new year is that it gives us a gauge to measure by, it gives us perspective, and perspective helps us to see things more clearly. It also gives us a sense of a new beginning, a fresh start. As Christians, the good news of God's grace is that it means that every day can be a new beginning. Grace is a deep well that we can draw from every day.

I don't know if you are in the habit of making New Year's resolutions. I'm not - but instead I sit down at the beginning of each year and ask myself a couple of questions:

1. What are the things in my life that I have been doing that I need to repent of?
2. What are the humanly impossible prayers that I am praying this year?

I would encourage you to ask these questions of yourself as well!The reason raising questions like these is beneficial is because they help you to be intentional. If you don't know where you are going, it's really hard to get there!

Over the past few years I have made sure to write down my answers to these questions, and it has been interesting looking back over them and seeing how God has answered prayers that I considered 'humanly impossible' at the time I started praying them! I can honestly say that without exception, each one has been answered, and each year that has encouraged me to ask for even bigger, even more seemingly 'impossible' things. We have a big God, with whom all things are possible (Mark 10:27) - a God who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20).

I believe that God has many good things in store for White Fields in 2013. May this new year be blessed for you and characterized by a great measure of grace and a closer walk with God.

Many blessings,

Pastor Nick

 

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