Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. I know it sounds trite and cliché, but it is a true statement. So what do you intend to do with 2018? Last night, we welcomed in 2018 with two of our sons and our church family. What a blessing to bring in a new year in God's house, with his people, and rejoicing in His presence. I can't think of a better way to begin a new chapter.

Start With Prayer

In the midst of prayer, scripture and encouragement from our Pastors this quote was shared, "Praying does what doing can't do." Both in regular service and during our crossover service we returned to James 5:16, "...The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." Earnest prayer and fervency have been repeating in my head for several weeks now. Time to dig a little deeper.

On this rare occasion I am leaving Merriam-Webster and looking at the Oxford dictionary. Earnest is an adjective meaning "Resulting from or showing sincere and intense conviction." Fervent has a similar meaning, "having or displaying a passionate intensity". However, if you look at the archaic definition of fervent it reads "hot, burning, glowing". An eye opener, right. Have I been earnest in my prayers? Does my faith walk, countenance and such show fervency? No, it really has not. There are fits and starts - but it has not been hot, burning, glowing. Time to turn up the heat.

Fasting

My husband and I have done the modified fast in the past which consisted of 6am to 6pm. We saw changes and felt impact from it. Here is my struggle. I rarely eat breakfast, I am a cup of coffee and go kind of girl. I only eat lunch about half the time, because there is work to be done and I do not utilize the lunch hour I have. At the end of a modified fast I feel like I have cheated the system. Does that make sense to anyone else?

When the church started preparing for a time of prayer and fasting in early December, I felt the tug to participate in full. No modifications. Just water, tea, juice, coffee, broth and a whole lot of prayer. This will certainly be a one day at a time effort. My husband and one of my sons is participating too. My son surprised me as he wants to do the full fast as well. I have to confess that will reduce temptation dramatically in our household.

I spent the last several weeks somewhat scared of this time of fasting. I was setting up expectations in my mind and ultimately accepting a path of defeat before I ever started. Then I would psych myself up with all the benefits of the fast, not just the spiritual connectivity but cleansing my body and preparing to eat better in this new year. I even started bargaining with myself that if I could get through a week that would be a huge step. Are you seeing the issue here? I was all in my head, trying to battle my concerns, inadequacies and my fear of failure. I was not trusting God to guide me.

We are fasting for as long as we fast. I have to focus on God and remember that he knows my heart. That is what the fast is all about in the end...healing and strengthening our hearts to engage deeper in faith for ever more closeness with our God.

Giving

Another aspect of strengthening faith is giving. Tithe is certainly a part of that. For the most part my husband and I are obedient in tithe, but we have had a few missteps the latter part of this year. Changes in jobs, bonuses and such have not been reflected in our tithe. That changes today. I struggled with the automatic draft of our tithe earlier this year. I thought I was missing the purposefulness behind our giving. Stopping the automatic draft of our tithe actually opened a door for disobedience for me. I can't allow that to happen in 2018. Joe and I can be purposeful about our giving as we pray over our tithe. It may be different for you, as long as we are obedient to God's commands that is what really matters.

Giving is not just about tithe. There are offerings above our tithe. There is giving of our time. Using

our gifts to bless others. We give a fair amount of time to our church, but there are things laid upon my heart that will take extraordinary effort to make happen. Things that mean stepping out in faith, embracing a possible calling that is not yet clear to me. The non-financial giving looks different for all of us, but I am convinced that it is every bit as important as financial giving. Psalm 92:13 is quoted every week in our church service. Centerbranch puts a major emphasis on being planted in the church. No just being a consumer sitting in the row, but being an active vibrant member of ministry. I challenge you to find your place in your church and begin serving. Service is an element of giving that cannot be addressed just by writing a check...it takes sincere effort.

Evangelism

This word often scares people. Non-believers think of hell, fire and brimstone preachers; while believers are shaking in their shoes afraid of rejection. When you look at the mechanics of it, it does seem pretty silly that we are worried about people disliking us for sharing the good news of Jesus and the love of God. (Trust me, I am pointing to myself more than anyone else.) 

We do not have to be Billy Graham to share the gospel. You don't have to be a pastor or a great public speaker. You just have to share your experiences. Has God healed you? Did He bless you financially? Did He take away your sorrow and fill you with joy? Talk about it. Sharing our faith is a conversation. That is where it all starts. Remember, we my not bring in the harvest and witness first hand the salvation of someone we pour into, we may simply be seeding. There is no harvest if the seeds are not planted.

For our family, 2018 means an extraordinary dive into evangelism by participating in the 2018 mission trip to Cambodia. We officially start raising money today for the trip. Devon went in 2017 and the impact it made on him still astounds me. He did not want to come home. He fell in love with Cambodia and its people. This year Joe and I will join him. We expect to see a surge in our faith and boldness as a family. 

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Onward and Upward

Embrace the promise of this new year. I want my name to become synonymous with fervent and earnest. I want my legacy to be one of giving faithfully, both financially and in tactile ways. I want people to expect to hear about God's goodness and grace in every conversation I have. I want a violent faith that shakes the foundations of hell and makes evil scared to face off with me. Where are you headed this year? Write it down. Think big. Make sure your prayers impact more than you. Make sure your prayers are effective and powerful. 

We will each face some level of adversity in our path. Rest assured that Roman 8:37 applies to us. "Yet in all things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us]." 

Happy New Year! I leave you with one final scripture that seems perfect for the first day of a new year: