I decided that it was time to begin at the beginning, reading and praying through the first five books of the Bible.  I confess that writing both my blog and my prayer journals have become quite a task for me—between my propensity for distraction and the overwhelming tyranny of chores and household responsibilities, I just seem to get nowhere close to writing or typing up all that I would like.  But the first hour or two in the morning are sacred, my time spent in God’s Word and communion with Him—I love it!

And then I get up.

And I am assaulted by the diversions and pressures of all the “gotta get done before I can do anything else” messages that snap like alligators at my feet.  The holidays especially dictate extra things to do, people to see, meals to prepare, kids to supervise, trips to take, as well as added chores around the house.

Romans 7 is my story—“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (v. 18).  And my song echoes the refrain from the old hymn (Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing):  “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.”

For me, it is quite typical coming to the end of a year feeling this way—over-extended, over-eating, pretty much overwhelmed in many regards, and incredibly inadequate as far as my relationship with God is concerned—and wanting to make resolutions to do much better in the coming year.  I’ve been on this journey of life for a while now and have decided to forego adding fuel to the enemy’s fires of condemnation by making New Year’s resolutions; however, I also recognize a “clean slate” opportunity at the beginning of each new year that goes beyond the “new mercies” I hope for each morning.

Things change when we accept Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as payment for our sins—it becomes so much more than a conscious decision, in fact, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  What was asleep, awakens; what was dead, comes alive—when we were “once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasure, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.…the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:3-6).

As the initial glow of our salvation starts to dim, (speaking personally here) it is easy to slip into mirroring the expectations of what the Christian life looks like.  It becomes more about religious disciplines than an ever-growing relationship with the Creator.  Of course we need to read the Bible; of course prayer is essential for intimacy with God.  And of course we “should” give offerings, do good works, watch less television and spend less time on the internet…  But slowly, subtly, often unconsciously I slip into a spiritual condition best represented by the church at Galatia:  “O foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?  This only I want to learn from you:  Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  Are you so foolish?  Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1-3).

The Holy Spirit spoke these words to the apostle Paul and he wrote them in a letter to the Ephesian church:  “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:4-6, 8-10).

It is so easy so easy as a Christian to take what is spiritual and attempt to turn it into something that is definable or measureable—grasping verses like “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26), emphasizing works and minimizing faith, substituting works for faith, and forgetting that “…it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

Do you remember how you received Christ?  By faith.  “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6, 7).

This is my cry, “O wretched [woman] that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?  I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  So—“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”  … And, “[I am] not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in [me]” (Romans 7:24-25; 8:1, 9).  And the Spirit of God does dwell in me by faith!

This is my hope for the new year:  To draw closer to Jesus and experience Him drawing closer to me, to lean more heavily on the Holy Spirit’s work in my life and put less confidence in the “good” works of my flesh, to grow deeper in my knowledge of God’s Word so that I will be quicker to recognize the voice of the enemy as he whispers his lies into my thoughts, and to cherish moments of stillness so that I can hear the voice of God’s Spirit as He directs my paths.

My prayer is that we all will continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of God as this new year unfolds.

“‘Not by might nor by power,

But by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

Zechariah 4:6