Planning for the New Year

"I have labored most of this day on my message for the weekend. I am supposed to give vision and bring out what the year is to look like. It is tough because I have so much in my heart and yet I am finding it hard to make clear. There are no easy steps to make this happen. There is heart, faith and following the Lord."

The Bible says that there are many plans in a man's heart but the answer comes from the Lord. Looking at a new year can bring on a host of emotions. Sometimes the task ahead can be daunting. Other times the prospect of the unknown can be exciting. We may also find that having a clean slate to work with is a relief and there is a peace that comes with the new year. 

I think the sentiment from my thought from last year is still the same today. No matter how you feel as you approach 2017 know that it can be your best year. The reason is that when you have God giving direction and laying out the vision of what is to come it makes life an adventure. Adventure doesn't mean easy. I couldn't give you three easy steps to the best year of your life. But I can give you encouragement that you can have the best year of your life. 

How can I say that? Glad you asked. 

I have a question for you. 

What is in your heart? 

Do you really want to have a great year? You can have it. God says that if you delight yourself in Him that He will give you the desire of your heart. That shows me that if you really want it you can have it. 

Beyond that what can you believe God for? How big is He to you? What is He able to do? My Bible says God is an exceedingly abundantly above all I can ask or think God. That means my desires and my ability to ask will always come up short of what He is able to do. He will always exceed my expectation! So my faith needs to rise to new levels to have a better year. 

Finally we need to realize the simplicity of just following God as our leader. Again, this is not always easy, but it is simple. 

There have been many times that I have lamented over a member of my family, who will go unnamed (you know who you are), and their inability to make boxed macaroni and cheese. If they could just follow the directions everything would turn out right. But rather than boil the water before they add the noodles I see them dumping the box in water that is just starting to warm up. Oh I warn them that soggy macaroni noodles are on the horizon but do they listen? No. Not until they are eating mushy mac 'n cheese. 

All joking aside I know that God's plan is better than mine. If we could just catch a vision of what God has planned for us and follow His will we would have the best year of our lives. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit for a look in to what He desires for your year ahead. Press in, fast, pray and find out from the scriptures and your personal time with the Holy Spirit what that is. 

My 2016 ended up being an amazing year that when I look back on I am blown away. God is faithful. We can see it behind us and we can believe for it ahead of us. 

Life Support

"Another great day in church! During the first service I had just finished explaining that when you believe God for something the devil will come and cross examine your faith and the power went out. The church roared. We prayed and took authority and I used it as an illustration for my sermon. The power came back on and we were able to have a great rest of the church service. My favorite quote from the message was that we don't need to support our faith, we need our faith to support us."

All of the issues you face every day will crush you under the pressure if you don't have faith. Faith sees past the natural circumstances to a supernatural God and a supernatural result. Faith supports us when we would have fallen down. Faith supplies us where we are lacking. 

You have to see the solution in the Word of God before you can see it in the natural. When you have a promise from God you can believe Him for it. The great thing is you won't be disappointed because God cannot lie. You can know for sure that you will receive from God what you believe Him for. 

Life will try to kick our legs out from under us. If you have faith then you will be held up through the problem. Otherwise the pain or trial would have laid us out. We would have given up and quit except that God is real and true. 

Finally Faith supplies us where we were lacking. Whether it is strength we need or resources or whatever else, the reward and final result of our faith is that we will receive what we are believing God for. It takes time and patience but it will happen. Watch and see. 

Whatever you launched out in believing God for in the new year stay after it. Put your natural effort in to it and God will put His supernatural ability on it. Faith sees, faith supports and faith supplies. 

What are you believing God for? What scriptures can you believe God for in that are of your life? 

Thoughts on Fasting

"I was thinking about it and came to the conclusion that inconvenience is the essence of a fast. We are inconveniencing ourselves when we decide to not eat any food for a period of time."

Every year we take time to fast and seek the Lord for the new year. It focuses our prayers and our hearts as well as gives the first part of our year to the Lord. It is never easy or pleasant but that is the point. My mother in law who is also a huge influence in my life and a woman of God defined fasting one time and said "Fasting silences what is loudest in our lives in order to hear from God." In other words when we fast it is intentionally quieting our desires and appetites in order to hear from God in prayer. 

Many times you will see prayer and fasting together in the Bible. Other times you see fasting as a way to seek God for breakthrough in a specific area like when Esther was going before the king or Ezra was traveling through dangerous wilderness. Their fasts and prayers were heard by God and they got the breakthrough they needed. 

Jesus told us that when we fast, not if, that we shouldn't make a big deal out of it in order to be noticed by men. Our goal in fasting is to be heard by God and to hear Him. Fasting is an avenue to connect on an intense level with the Lord. I say intense because it shows extra effort. It breaks the habit of our three meals a day or our snack times, it goes against our natural impulses and it is unpleasant. But that is the whole point! We are denying the flesh in order to press in to the Spirit. Expect the flesh to cry out and push back. 

If you are seeking God for direction or want to see breakthrough in 2016 I would invite you fast. If it is your first time start small. Maybe choose a meal or certain times you will fast. Another way to fast is to choose certain foods or drinks you will not eat. There are ample scriptures and tons of great resources about fasting. The biggest thing is to focus your fast on prayer and seeking the Lord for your breakthrough. 

If you have any questions or comments about fasting you are welcome to post them in the comments section below. I would love to hear testimonies later in the year too about what God did and how He answered your prayers. 

Day 365 - We Did It!

"This is my 356th entry! I did it! At least I can say I am disciplined and consistent and follow through with my commitments.

It has been a good year. I am very blessed. We made it through many trials. I believe that the plowing and sowing we have done we will see come to pass in 2015."

Truly on New Year's Eve we can look back over a year and see the faithfulness of God. I see how through all the hard times we encountered God was making us stronger. In all the good times God was showing us His goodness. In the silence we were learning to trust. In everything God is all in all. 

When you have God in everything then everything becomes good. Even the bad God works our for good. It is truly amazing how from tragedy and trial spring forth testimonies of God's goodness. Some don't share this opinion. I read over some of the 2015 year in review articles on the web and found pessimism, criticism and sarcasm. None of those ever got me any closer to God. 

What makes a good year is when you set your heart to trust God. Look for His faithfulness. If you draw near to Him He will draw near to you. Your goals and plans, when submitted to Him, will come to fruition. Maybe not in the way you wanted but if not God has some thing better for you. (Just see yesterday's post for more on this.)

When I look back at a year of blogging my thoughts from last year I realize it has been a healthy journey. It has taught me a lot about myself, God and others. I want to say thank you to those of you who have taken the journey with me and have posted comments here and on other social media sites. It has been fun and I have had great pleasure reading about your thoughts on the topics discussed. 

As I look forward to next year I plan on continuing to blog my thoughts but with some changes. I don't want to reveal everything here but I am going to update the look and feel and will probably go weekly instead of daily. It's tough! I have lost a lot of sleep because I was up writing. Also  I felt at times that I was reaching for topics and felt that I could deliver better content if I had more time to look over, prepare and write. (Or maybe even edit, who would have thought?!) 

I also plan on being in the face of God to do His will, growing as a husband and father and staying after my passions in life. By the grace of God I will do all this and more. Happy New Year!

No questions today. Feel free to write some of your thoughts from this last year and/or any goals for the new year.