Can you believe that we’re about to enter the 14th year of the 2000s? We started 2014, as with any new year, with many new opportunities. I’ve got a number of things I’d like to accomplish, both personally and with the ministry of the church. The New Year is a great time to start. People look at a new year and they start to think of things they’d like to accomplish. Maybe it’s a health goal, a business goal, or even a spiritual goal. The New Year is a good time to turn the page on things you’d like to accomplish, and it’s a great time to turn the page on things you should put behind you.
Read Philippines 3: 12-14. It tells us we all have an imperfect past. We all have blemishes and stains that we’d just hope no one knew about or that we’d just as soon forget. You may have grown up in church; you might have been involved in church; you may have been a church leader of some sort. But just the same, you have an imperfect past. It’s imperfect because of the presence of sin in your life. But it’s imperfect because you have chosen your way over God’s way many times. The bottom line of what I want to communicate to you through Paul’s words here is that he decided to turn the page on his past, and even on his present circumstances.
This coming year let us turn the page on a lukewarm relationship with Christ. Spend time in the word and prayer if you’re never developed that habit. Start today to spend five minutes reading in the New Testament and five minutes praying. Give up on half-hearted obedience to Jesus. Get past lip service. Jesus says that if we love Him, we’ll obey Him. Don’t let bitterness and un-forgiveness take root in your heart and rot your soul. Turn the page on that destructive behavior. Turn the page on handling God’s money your way. Money is one of those things people cling to the hardest.
My weekly prayer is that the reader of this commentary becomes spiritually inspired of God.
Become an intercessory Prayer Partner with Expressions of Faith Ministry. Contact us at P.O. Box 330127, Nashville, Tenn. 37203; or e-mail <w310watson@aol.com>.
Happy New Year and God bless—from the Watson family.
