Happy New Year!

It’s 2018. For us, this year will mark: 18 years of discipleship. 12 years of marriage. 10 years of parenthood (age range spanning 7 months – 17 years!). 6 years of family-via-adoption. 2 years full-time mission work (including training/prep as well as outreaches).

It will mark our launch into a new position in ministry and geographical location. New home, new church, new schools, new colleagues, new friends. Please pray for our family now, regarding these transitions!

 

Have you ever felt like an old-timer, dried up by life’s incessant demands, being asked to do something new? Like an “old wineskin” when Jesus is pouring in “new wine”, and you just might burst? (Mark 2:22) Thought you had your shape, and were able to contain and maintain what you needed to, only to have the shape of everything change, with a requirement of increased capacity? Yes?

My soul is refreshed and my hope rises in the twilight: I am making all things new. That means you, too.

He happily does away with the “old wineskin” bits of me, in order to bring in something new, with a capacity He designs and prescribes.

I have anticipation, that still, things that are utterly beyond us, He will do. Because He is inherently unhindered by the things He spoke into being, He loves to be known for who He is, and He is in passionate pursuit of His children. Myself included. Yourself included. Every broken one of us included. We are a mess, and He is glorious, and He calls us, further up, further in.

But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. (2 Cor 3:18). So long as our faces are set on Him, we’re being made more like Him. It’s cause-and-effect. May He have our eyes, our hearts. I pray that for you as I pray it for me this year:

Fix your eyes on JESUS, the Author and Finisher of your faith. (Heb 12:2)

Let your eyes look directly ahead; let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. (Proverbs 4:25)

Seek the LORD and His strength. Seek His face continually. (Psalm 105:4)

One thing I ask of the LORD, and this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple. (Psalm 27:4)

Maybe you get a “word” for the year, a focus or expectation for what God wants to do in your life. Such an exciting thing, to have Him speaking into our lives and cultivating anticipation. Teaching us, shepherding us, loving us in such unique ways. Thank You, Father!

But our first word, our first pursuit, our one thing even after all other expectations fade: let it be Jesus Himself. He is guaranteed: Seek me and you will find me when you search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

So this year, whether you’re joy-ing, celebrate-ing, pause-ing, adventure-ing, purify-ing, love-ing, trust-ing, rest–ing, learn-ing, discipline–ing, or whatever other amazing growth and gift you’re receiving, let it come through the perfectly designing hands of Jesus, with the reward of knowing Him better, and how lavishly He loves you.

What is He speaking to you this New Year? What’s your word?