Daily Devotions

Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.  Isaiah 55:6-11

It was great to have some time off and some time away since Christmas, and just as good to be back into the routine today.  Life is good when it is as good to be back in the routine as it is to have a break.  And now we come to the beginning of a new year.

I love the beginning of a new year.  Frankly, I love new beginnings.  I love freshly cleaned whiteboards.  A blank document waiting for the first character to be typed. I like writing the first check of the year and the weird feeling of knowing that the year you just wrote feels strange – and that it will take most of the year to get used to writing it. I like weeks that begin with Sunday mornings.  I like knowing that every day is a new day and an opportunity to begin again. 

How will we move into a new year?  Perhaps you are the type to make New Year’s resolutions.  Some will be new.  Others…you’ve tried before and it didn’t work out so great that time.  Looking back, you quickly realize that the problem didn’t lie in your desires but in your lack of power. 

The Apostle Paul described it this way in Romans 7, “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” 

What will be different this year?  Where will you find the power to do what you haven’t been able to do before?  Isaiah’s suggestion is to seek the Lord.  To call upon him.  Certainly this is mysterious.  But it is also powerful.  “Seek the Lord” will be our theme as we walk together into this new year.

Let us pray:  We call upon you, O Lord.  We seek you.  In the quietness, in the bustle, on busy freeways, in colorful sanctuaries, in the early hours in our back yards, in the evening hours at the end of our days, come to us.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

This entry was posted on January 2, 2014 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.