New You/New Year

If in 2014...things didn't quite go as you planned...maybe in 2015 you might want to try something different. Not on a New Year/New You kind of way...but in a New You/New Year kind of way.

Let me explain...

Maybe this year God allowed some things to happen that blew either your mind...or your world apart. Maybe this year you asked God for some things...and what you got didn't look anything like what you asked for.

Maybe like Moses you said, “Now show me Your glory, God!” (Ex 33:18)

And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord , in your presence." (Ex 33:19a)

And maybe you got a taste of a "good" Word and you stopped listening. Maybe you didn't hang around long enough to let God finish talking to you...to let Him finish His sentence..."I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." (Ex 33:19b)

Maybe God laid it all out for you..."But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (Ex 33:20)...and you didn't like what you heard and you thought there was a way to have your cake and eat it too. Surely...you thought...God has it wrong...surely, I can see His face AND live. Surely.

Well. God told you where to go, what to do, and what He would do...Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by (Ex 33:21-22).

But because it didn't look like you thought it should or go like you thought it would...you thought you missed it...or worse...you thought God could not...or would not do it...Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” (Ex 33:23)

Stay with me here. Maybe you asked God for something...but when He told you that you would have to go some places and do some things that didn't quite make sense to you...or that you thought weren't the best answer for you...you thought God let you down.

Nope. Let's back up a bit here. Let me ask you a couple of questions about YOU.

In 2014...was God pleased with YOU? In 2014...does God know you by name? These are rhetorical heart questions. You don't need to answer to me. And God already knows. But you may want to have a little convo with yourself.

So. In 2014...did you humble yourself before God...to be able to ASK God and then did you position yourself to be able to HEAR God and did you open your heart eyes to be able to SEE God?

And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” (Ex 33:17)

Now. If in 2014...you missed God...it's okay...THIS IS WHY HE GIVES US A NEW YEAR... "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Is 43:19)

Welcome to 2015.

Possibly the first day of the rest of your life. But. You're going to have to get on some get right. God hasn't changed. He is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Heb 13:8) And so is His Word.

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! (Rom 9:14) If God told you to do something...there is no getting around it. He'll give you a clean slate to work with...but you'll still have to put in the work.

Remember...God doesn't change...For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” (Rom 9:15)

And if things don't start or turn out how you expect them to in 2015...remember...So then it is not of him who wants, nor of him who works, but of God who shows mercy. (Rom 9:16)

This isn't about you, Boo! God does want to use you though. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh [and it goes for ALL of us], “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” (Rom 9:17)

So. The take home message from 2014...is the same as it was years ago...the same as it will be years from now (God willing!)...Therefore God has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. (Rom 9:18)

And...Because God knows us oh so well....from Romans 9....

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?”

But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?

“Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” 

Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?  

What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?

What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—

As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”    and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ” ( Rom 9:19-23, 25-26)