Faithfulness to the Task

Happy New Year!

May the year ahead be one of happiness and blessing for you. May you be blessed not only temporally but spiritually, not only in the ‘outer man’ but more importantly, in the ‘inner man,’ in the part of you that shall live forever.

IN TABLES OF THE HEART

In II Corinthians 3:3 it says, “You are declared to be the epistle of Christ…written not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God; not in tables of stone but in fleshy tables of the heart.” May we allow Jesus to speak to us, to write His heart to us, in the tables of our heart as we seek Him together daily.

January 1

Faithfulness to the Task

Man is forever striving for more, for better. Toward that end, he makes resolutions at the start of each New Year. He will improve himself. He will make wiser food choices so his weight will conform to the prescribed limit of the height/ weight ratio charts. He will monitor his investments more closely. He will…

The list goes on. As we stand at the threshold of a new year, we see ourselves in that man whose intentions are good. We also know from past years’ failed resolutions that our performance of those intentions shall probably fail. We want to attain the best that our potential affords to us, but we trudge along in our rut and remain as we are.

Yet, we do not have to perpetuate the least of ourselves. We do not have to strand ourselves on the Island of Status Quo. We can, by God’s grace and empowerment be like the Apostle Paul who at the end of his life’s journey could recount the faithfulness of the Lord who enabled him to achieve all that was set before him. In spite of imprisonment, Paul fulfilled his God-ordained destiny. In spite of our hardships, we can, too!

May we be able to say as Paul said in II Timothy 4:7, 8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Now there awaits me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge will give to me on that day—and not to me only but to all who long for Jesus’ appearing.” The Holy Spirit will empower us as He did Paul to do all that is given us to do—and then give us a crown of righteousness for our faithfulness to the task.