Welcome to 2014! Happy new year to you and may God bless you abundantly in the new year. I believe that 2014 will be a time for change and recovery for me and my family as well as for many others. Change and recovery — those are the words our Lord brought to me this morning. Let’s explore these two concepts in more detail.
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase before, ‘Life is change.” I believe there is much truth to that. Change is absolute, nothing stays the same. From birth to infancy to adolescence to adulthood and old age, we are always going through the cycles of life. Our bodies change, our minds and attitudes change and so does the world around us. Society changes from generation to generation and there is no way around it. Let’s face it, life is change.
Now how about recovery? To recover something it must have first been lost or misplaced. You cannot recover something that doesn’t need recovering. So what are we recovering? The verse that immediately comes to mind is of course Joel 2:25:
“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you”
Is there anything in your life that is need of recovery? If so, don’t despair, the Recovery Expert is here, Jesus Christ! He’ll help you recover the months and years you’ve lost for whatever reason. Maybe it was sinful activity, perhaps it was not. Maybe it was just getting caught up in the world and all the daily responsibilities, or maybe it was just not staying aware of what God really wants to do in your life or in the lives of those around you through you. Whatever it is, God wants you to recover that which has been lost. God wants to restore the things the enemy has stolen away, bit by bit, every so subtly.
The key to all this of course is to put God first. Sounds easy, right? May I be so bold as to say it’s harder to not put God first? Putting things before God can take many forms, too numerous to discuss here. It’s very easy to let things get in the way of your relationship with God, to be the person God wants you to be and to do those things God wants to you to do. But it’s harder in the long run because you have to keep going over the same old rocky ground over and over and over again.
In my life, I am always trying to get the balance right between daily work and responsibilities and my walk with our Lord Jesus Christ. The world is inescapable yet we can have the upper hand if we walk by faith in God’s revealed Word and will. It’s much easier to commit your works unto the Lord so they will be established.
Commit your works to the LORD And your plans will be established (Proverbs 15:3).
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. (Psalms 37:5-6)
Now let’s tie these two concepts together: Change and Recovery. For recovery to happen, something has to change. Obviously if things were the way they should be, nothing would have been lost or misplaced. Search those things out in your life that are holding you back from loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Those are the things you can change with our Lord’s help through the power God has invested in you through His gift of holy spirit within you. You have the power, all you need is clarity on what to change and the will to change it.
Change is a good thing as long as it’s toward God and not the other way around. The world is a big distraction from the things of God. Center your entire being on God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ and commit your ways unto him and your thoughts and plans will be established. Change is coming and it’s a good thing. Commit to your heavenly Father and your Lord Jesus Christ.
How you do this is up to you. I don’t know you or your life situations, but I do know Him who has called you to His glory. He wants the best for you, not mediocre. He wants you to thrive and proper as you keep Him first. No, this isn’t the gospel of prosperity, it’s the gospel of God. Put God first and the rest will follow. I can’t prescribe what change you need to effect in your life, but our Lord can and will as you seek him in all you think and do.
May 2014 be a time of change and recovery for you. Put God first in all you do and He will establish you. Welcome to the year 2014: It’s time for change and recovery in your life. Welcome it and make it so with God’s help.