01/01/2024
I awoke on this New Year's Day to what felt like a fresh new beginning, but as I prepared to read my morning devotional and reach out to God in Prayer I had a revelation... Today is not unlike any other day in Christ. I was thrilled and blessed by this realization and His presence. God is indeed with us in His fullness, and remains the same each moment of every day. Whether this day is our first, or our last, He is without change.
“” For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.””
Malach1 3:6 ESV
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8 ESV
In as much as I started a worship and prayer journey last year in mid-year, by reading the daily devotional book "The Power of Prayer" by E. M. Bounds from that particular day of the year forward. On December 31st I decided to continue my journey by beginning the New Year by reading the book from its entry for the first day of January. This is one of the blessings that comes from initiating a journey in mid adventure... the beginning awaits us and our fellow travelers, with whom we may one day complete our pilgrimage before God. In this way we remain companions as if we were always old friends. They are indeed our old friends who will forever teach us of their faith without a defined start nor finish.
My book was a gift from Chuck Savage, a sales representative for IBM, who had become one of my closest friends and prayer partners; he was my fellow traveler. We read each day and share our thoughts about what we had read. Without acknowledging any particular day as the beginning we read like I would imagine that one would read eternity, by starting from the moment we realize we were there within it… from that place that we call always.
So, today Bounds wrote of giving God, all of ourselves, all that belongs to us, to God. We do this by giving Him our first breath, which we can’t remember taking, and continuing on until we have given him our next breath… that we can’t yet recall taking.
"this is the secret of full consecration and the sort of praying that produces the largest fruit." - E.M. Bounds
I then read Philippians 3 and came to understand what Bounds was referring to. Every earthly thing we have belongs to God already; so what is expected of us when God asks us to give Him all that belongs to us? How can we give eternity to our eternal God? We have to give Him those things that are eternal within us… things like our love, our souls, and our worship.
“For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”
Philippians 3:18-20 ESV
God isn't interested in our money, possessions, fame, or other worldly trappings... He wants what is truly ours to give... Our love, our praise, our worship. He wants those things that no one can take from us unless we give them. He wants the intangible attributes which make us who we are but can't be touched by the physical hand.
So this year as Chuck and I continue our pilgrimage through prayers and faith towards the throne of God, our ultimate destination; I want us to strive more each day to give all of ourselves to God. I want each day to be as today... an eternal day; the first day of a Holy journey that we can’t recall beginning, and which we can’t imagine ending.
I taught a Sunday school lesson one New Year’s Sunday morning on a scripture which thrills me. It speaks to the beauty of our lives and why they are the way they are:
“Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”
2 Corinthians 3:2-3 KJV
Like the Corinthians, we are an epistle of Christ... A poem... A literary work... A letter… that is being written by the very hand of Jesus. He doesn't write of us on tangible things like papyrus or parchment... He writes on our hearts; our spirits; and of those things which represent who we truly are; the eternal things we can give freely of ourselves.
Let's begin our new year like my devotional and Christ's epistle... without beginning or end yet fresh every day! Let’s see ourselves and our Heavenly Father as being beautiful in His Holy Word... and give Him all of ourselves in groans, trembling, and in loving words of continuous prayer that never end, and have come to us from before the foundation of creation.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for eternity, and the enigma it represents in our lives. We thank you for all we have that is without beginning or end, and which has been yours always, even before we can imagine ourselves giving it to you. Strengthen us in our faith Lord, and take pleasure in us as we conform to your will, and obey all you command and ask of us. Your love, your grace, your mercy and goodness; all of these are without start and have no finish. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who was, and is, and is to come. On this day that we call the beginning of a new year, we ask you to open our eyes to the eternity in which we stand with you. Show us the gifts that are worthy of giving you, and help us to take that first step out of this fettered world that is bound by Satan, and has no concept of what is truly glorious and eternal. Hear our prayers that never cease, and give them voice when the world steals our tongues. Let the groanings of our souls touch your heart, and please you always. Holy Father, let their echoes return to us from before they were, their sound thrill our lips in this moment, and their anticipation be ours forevermore. In this way bless us always.
Rich Forbes