One of our themes since the beginning of the New Year at church has unintentionally been being intentional in the New Year. Intentionally seeking God. It’s so amazing how He works, different people leading, same New Year’s message. Last week the encouraging message centered around Isaiah 41:10 and Hebrews 13:5-6 , and it laid out His commands and His promises for each of us. You really should read it. This led to a discussion about what we’re supposed to be doing in the new year and someone shared a prayer that they’d come across that fell right in step with the messages. That’s just how amazing God is!
This prayer not only spoke to our Lord, but spoke to our hearts, each of us picking up on something different. The part that bothered, or cut me to the quick:
Keep your words of truth planted firm within us, help us to keep focused on what is pure and right, give us the power to be obedient to your word. And when the enemy reminds us where we have been, hissing his lies and attacks our way, we trust that your voice speaks louder and stronger, as you remind us we are safe with you and your purposes and plans will not fail. We ask that you will be our defense and rear guard, keeping our way clear, removing the obstacles, and covering the pitfalls. Lord, lead us on your level ground.
A Prayer to Keep God First This New Year, Debbie McDaniel
As my friend read “And when the enemy reminds us where we have been,” I was thinking to myself – Girl, you got me pegged!! I don’t know this Debbie McDaniel, but I praise God for Cathy introducing us to her and I praise God for Debbie’s heartspeak. It feels like she’s known me forever. You too?
You see, just to be perfectly honest, I’ve always known who Jesus was but I’ve not always walked with Him. It wasn’t that He wasn’t walking with me, but I wasn’t walking with Him. I went before Him, I went around Him, I went above Him, and most times, I went below Him. None of that makes me proud. In fact, “when the enemy reminds me” I am sometimes shocked at the different person that I am and I become paralyzed, inert.
Now, I have always been a kind person, well mostly, sometimes, hmmm…? Okay. I’ve always been a loving person, well mostly, sometimes, hmmm…? Okay. I’ve always thought of others first, well mostly, sometimes, hmm…? Okay. I’ve always been a good person, well mostly, sometimes, hmmm…? I’ve always been…Okay, this is just downright excruciating to think about. When I think about who I was, what I did, what I said, how I acted, what I did to be accepted, how I did the wrong things all the while knowing they were the wrong things, you know, intentional sinning, I sometimes think – who was that person? Thank God!!
The Lord pursued me for years. Actually, He chased me down and didn’t give up on me. The Lord has changed my heart and my mind and I am a new person. Honestly, it wasn’t an immediate about face because I’m a strong-willed somebody for sure, but He was relentless. He finally got me in a headlock, more like a heartlock, and changed my life. Thank God!!
I can say, but I wasn’t so bad, I was a good person, but when it comes right down to it, I was quite the scoundrel. I may have done very good things and said very good things, but I was living the life of the dead. I was living in sin. He has shown me step-by-step how to walk away from who I was to who He wants me to be and He’s still doing that. Thank God!!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m still a sinner, but now His blood has made me righteous. He loved me so much that He died for me. He died for me to be a different person. He died so that I didn’t have to and He rose so that I could live a life of the living forever. Think about that for a hot second.
Going from dead to living has not been an easy process and the world is constantly calling, but because He has changed me, today when my thoughts my deeds, my words, my willfulness, my actions, my attitudes, my impertinence, my motives, my self, etc., don’t line up with His plan for me, I recognize it (and if I don’t, He makes sure that I do—Thank God!!). I’m repentant and then reminded that I’m redeemed. God moves me forward and says don’t look back child! He says I want you to live among the living, not among your old self, the dead. This is what He wants for us all!
When the enemy is hissing and attacking our way, we must look forward and not backward. God looks forward, He doesn’t look back. God looks at who we are, not who we were.
I love the prayer of Philip Doddridge:
I know I am not yet where I should be. I am far from being already perfect. But after the great example of the apostle, I forget what lies behind, and strain forward to what lies ahead. (Philippians 3:13)
Feed my soul by your word and by your Spirit. Then I will be born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible – even by your word, which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23). As a newborn babe, I desire the sincere milk of the word, that by it I may grow (1 Peter 2:2)
Amen.
We cannot move forward if our heads are turned backward. We walk in the direction we are pointed. If we’re constantly looking behind, we will surely stumble and fall flat over what’s ahead. Let’s turn our heads and therefore our eyes and hearts upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace. He doesn’t care where we’ve been, only where we’re going.
So, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Philippians 3:13-14