The best part about approaching the new year is the sensitivity that comes about that draws us to seek the Lord. The Lord is describes in the book of Isaiah and the book of Revelations as the one who holds the key of David to shut doors that no one can open and open doors that no one can shut.
He is the one with the authority, the kingship and the grace to do just that on our behalf. Often the new year is a time of reflection where we review what has happened the previous year and what we can improve on for the next year.
Going where God is calling us in the new year is just as simple as submitting ourselves to the authority of Jesus Christ who personally deals with us his children in closing doors in our lives that would hinder us from him and what he has for us, and he opens doors of opportunity for us to grow closer to him and to carry out his will.
I pray for sensitivity to God’s leading and a willingness to submit to him in this new year that he is allowing us to enter into. I also pray for a heart of worship for myself and God’s people as a whole. We know that the true worship that God calls us to is rooted in obedience. When we obey someone it shows fear, reverence, and respect for them.
I am currently reading in the book of Jeremiah which is a great book for believers to read when they are struggling with a sin that is happening over and over again in their lives. We know that the word of God is powerful and able to correct us, discern the intentions of our hearts, and re-direct us to the right path i.
The book of Jeremiah deals with the sin of idolatry. Idolatry is anything that we obey or place more importance on over the Lord. Jeremiah talks about how God’s people Israel were idolatrous toward God, but God still let his people know that he loved them and if they turned their hearts to him he would take them back.
Sometimes idolatrous sin can cause a person to lose a sense of what is right and wrong, and what God is saying altogether. It isn’t a good place to be in. Therefore, God being the good loving God that he is will use some form of judgement to shake us up causing us to sober up to what God is trying to show us.
That is what happened in the book of Jeremiah. God warned his people that he was about to send judgement after they had been idolatrous against him. He already had planned for another nation to take his people and subject them to the rule of that other nation. He tells them how to react when this happens saying for them to repent and to prepare their hearts toward the Lord.
“For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Jeremiah 4:3
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that non can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. Jeremiah 4:4
Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem: and say, Blow the trumpet in the land; cry gather together, and say Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities. Jeremiah 4:5” (KJV)
The above scriptures bring balance to how we view the Lord showing him as a God of love and a God of correction, judgement, and fury. The world is imbalanced in their view of God limiting him as just a God of love and that is it, but the Bible paints the appropriate picture.
These scriptures bring an appropriate fear for God that we should maintain as his children knowing that Gods character will not allow him to look past sin, but if we obey him we can overcome sin.
The above scriptures starting with verse 3 talk about a heart that needs to be cultivated toward God. Fallow ground is unfruitful ground not worthy of planting seeds because nothing will be able to be produced from fallow ground. In the new testament Jesus gave the parable about the seed and good ground and how good ground produced much fruit some 30, 60, or 100 percent. Verse 3 also warns against planting among thorns which the Bible talks about the seeds that were sown among thorns choked whatever attempted to grow from the seed that was planted.(Matthew 13:7).
Verse 4 specifically talks about setting our hearts upon the Lord almost like a re-dedication unto him, and verse 5 where it talks about blowing the trumpet is the wake up call where God is warning his people of the upcoming judgement.
God wants our hearts to be in a place where we are ready to receive from him. Where we are ready to worship him in sincerity and in truth. If we are so bound by our sin or distracted by life he will send a wake up call.
As we approach the new year, let’s examine the ground of our hearts, and pray that our hearts would be in position to receive from God and to worship him like maybe we haven’t done in a long time. Let’s pray for an increased hunger for God instead of what he can give us knowing that what we need is already taken care of by him because his word is bond.
Let’s be grateful and thankful that we made it another year still belonging to the Lord, in our right mind, full of the vision and the Spirit of God. These are things to truly be thankful for as we approach the new year.
Let’s allow our focus to be that of true worship where we give ourselves to the Lord without distraction and in obedience. Let’s pray that every door of distraction, sin, doubt, unbelief, or anything that would hinder us from truly worshiping God to be closed, and every door that will cause us to bring forth fruit in our lives to be opened doors of discipline, consecration, obedience, vision and such which will lead to so much more. A person who has committed their way to the Lord is limitless in what God has called him or her to do ii.
i For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
ii Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. Proverbs 16:3
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