An exciting New Year is beginning today! Does it give you a sense of hope and anticipation that great adventures and goodness are in store for you? I’ll be honest, I often approach the New Year with a “ho-hum” attitude because it just seems like I am always making and breaking the same resolutions—lose weight, save more money, etc. But God is radically changing my perspective. His unfathomable love, rich wisdom, unsurpassed peace, and incredible strength are giving me hope, satisfaction, and purpose that make my prior resolutions seem rather dusty and impractical.
Like—why would I work for a dollar an hour when I could gather gold nuggets?
Right. Making money, improving my diet and exercise, etc., have become more peripheral goals that are useful only in the context to facilitate God’s glorious purpose for my life.
God’s purpose for our life is so much greater than the small purposes we desire for ourselves!
To know God’s purpose, we must know God. This begins when we are born again. It continues when we grow in our relationship with Him. We must desire to allow God to lead us–like a small child–in the power and peace of His purpose. We must desire an intimate relationship with Him and trust Him completely to guide us in all our decisions.
Job, who lived a very good life, and experienced the unmerited horror of losing all of his children, his wealth, his position, and his health—questioned God. In reply, God reminded Job of who He is (Job chapters 40-41). At the end of God’s speech, the Bible says that Job answered the Lord and the conversation went like this:
Job: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.” And [so rightly] you [God] asked me:
“Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?”
Job: “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak.”
And [God] said, “I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”
Job: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.“
Job 42:1-6
The fact is, as we begin to experience the presence of God, we begin to see the futility of our own ways as well as the supernatural wisdom of HIS ways. We “repent” which means we make a 180° turn towards God!
To learn that God’s ways are better than our ways, changes our perspective and we begin to desire HIS supernatural goals.
When Job said I “abhor myself” he was saying “I’m an idiot for thinking I know more than YOU [God] about what is best for me.” He was seeing God for Who He is and realizing the profound foolishness of questioning God’s ways. Truly, it is despicable to cheat ourselves out of living in the will of God. God is constantly giving us what is “too wonderful” for us to comprehend.
The closer we draw to God, the more we find it incomprehensibly insane to go back to living without Him. Inside of us grows a desperate need to be close enough to Him to ask for His advice, hear His voice, and have the wisdom to live in His amazing plan.
If you are struggling to draw close to God, you are in good company!
It is THE daily struggle for all of us. You are NOT alone. We are ALL there! Take advantage of the search engine on this website to explore some of the resources to help you draw close to Him in this New Year. He cares so much. He desires to have an intimate relationship with us. He gave us the gift of salvation so that we could KNOW Him. He gives us His Spirit and His Word so we can GROW in Him.
My friend, we love ourselves the best when we love God most.
We would love to hear your thoughts about this devotional. Did God speak to you or challenge your daily walk with him? Or is there a topic that you would like Kimberly to cover or expound on? Please share with us in the comments below.
To learn more about Kimberly Faith and the mission of Faith Strong, click HERE.
Out Now – Essential Faith, Volume II. Find it on Amazon by clicking HERE.
To learn more about Kimberly Faith’s ministry Fostering By Faith, click HERE.
4 Responses
Happy new year. Thank you for the encouraging words.
Thank you for your kind comments!
happy new year
And to you as well!!!