Isaiah 52:11 "Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord."
The year 2011 is gone. The Lord has given me so much mercy and grace this past year. And favor. Look back for a moment, only to see and draw up in your memory the favor, the grace, the mercy the Lord has bestowed on us. Wow! When you put it all together in one place, in one big memory, it is amazing what He has done. I know I have grown in knowledge of my God. He has given me more wisdom, I know it is from Him because ....well, I just know. This earth cannot teach, cannot impart that perfect, beautiful wisdom, the thoughts that bring words to my mind to pour out in my writings. It is not humanly possible for me to do any of the things I have been able to do this past year without His favor and grace. But there is more....
Other than remembering the wonderful gifts and teachings of the Lord, He does not want us to dwell in the past. There are too many things that the enemy is waiting to pounce on and refresh our memories with for us to dwell there. The only things the Lord wants us to bring into tomorrow with us is the good memories, the blessings we have had. All of us have had days we would just as soon had never happened, but they did. We have come before our loving Father who has seen us only through the blood of our Savior Jesus and received forgiveness for all that happened in the past. The Lord does not want us carrying it forward into the new year.
In fact, I don't believe He wants us dwelling so much on the fact that in the new year things will be different than today. You see, His mercies are new each day. It does not take a change of year on the calendar to make a difference where He is concerned. New are His mercies each day. He does not change because the calendar does. Where the influx of excitement over the new year comes is that we have been taught that the new year holds better things, a change to be different, a chance to make a difference. So many say that with the new year is newness, a new start, a different perspective, things will be better, different. But I say to you, not to expect these things.....not unless you are ready to make a change in your heart. Your life will stay the very same, a different year perhaps, but unless there is a change in your heart, nothing will change.
Have you given your heart over totally to the Lord. Have you asked Him to clean out every little nook and cranny in your heart....to take all the bitterness, all the anger, all the hurt, all the disappointments, all the heartache....to take it all away? To replace these things with His comfort, His love, His peace and His joy? If you are holding on to griefs, to disapointments and hurts of yesterday, of the past year, past years, nothing will change in your life. You will continue day to day in the same manner as you have been. Why would you not want to give up those things that continually keep you in darkness of depression, of anger and hurt when with just a word to our Lord, it can be released from you. Those chains can fall off you and you can freely lift those hands to the Lord and worship Him for the peace and joy you feel. Trust me, it can happen. I was there in that day to day gloom, putting on the happy face so everyone would think I was doing good, feeling great when all that was inside me was rotting away, I was dying in spirit . But with a song in my heart I raised my hands to the Lord and He poured Himself into me and never left. How great is our God! He is above all, I tell you, He is wonderful, He is so great, He deserves all the praise of this earth.
You have nothing to lose. Before this night is over, declare OUT LOUD, "Father, I do not want to enter the new year with the hurts, disappointments, griefs of the past. Lord, take my heart and clean all these things from it and replace it with Your love, peace and joy. Father, let me not take the old into the new year, let me be pure in heart and soul, cleanse this vessel You have made of me and make it a place for You to dwell within. In Jesus Name, I pray, Amen." Now that you have made this declaratIon out loud, begin to sing unto the Lord and worship Him with thanksgiving for giving you new life in Him, new hope, new resurrected hope in Jesus. Now you can enter into the new, as the old has been broken off you.
Father, thank You for my life that You have restored in You. I enter into the new year thankful for You, that You do not change no matter what the calendar year is. That You will be the same tomorrow, loving me, giving me mercy and grace, that You have always been. I love You so. I can say Happy New Year knowing that in it, in me, is YOU.
12-31-11
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