Desert Road~

Happy New Year's Eve!

We are about to usher in a New Year, and I am excited!  Fresh starts, new resolutions, hope on the horizon - that's what a new year brings.  And my prayer for us all as we move in to 2016 is that we will, as it says in Isaiah 43:18-19, “Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. See the new thing God is doing.  He is making a road through the desert..."

What was your "desert" road this past year?  Did you travel through a dry, hard, unforgiving place that has left you craving cooling streams?  Are you parched and exhausted? Tired of the same ole' same ole'?

If so, then clap your hands and start thanking God because He is doing something new right now in your life. He is paving the way for you to get out of that mess. 

These verses are loaded with promise and hope, but before we can be alert and present, we have to let go of the past.  We must F-O-R-G-E-T.  Let's take a step of united faith and believe that if God is telling us to stop hashing and rehashing our history, it’s because it’s possible.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I take You at Your Word and pray that You would help me forget all the junk that brings me down. Help me focus on You and the new and glorious thing You are doing in my life..  I thank You for watching over me and my family this past year, and I look to You for every single thing we need this new year.  In particular, I desire deeply to be able to let go of ________________________;it’s a joy killer, it constantly crushes my hope, it consumes my mind, and it sometimes helps the fear creep in.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!

Let "it" Go!

Happy New Year!

2015 is in full swing, and I have, for the first time in my life, already gotten used to the new date when writing checks!

It feels weird that it’s 2015; saying time flies is an understatement.  But it is precisely because time goes by so quickly that we should all optimize however much of it we have.  It is pointless and draining to hold onto stuff that is bringing us down, and yesterday I read a headline that actually inspired today’s DEVO. 

“Shake it Off” narrowly beats “Let it Go” in sales.

These are two completely different songs with different lyrics and different tempos, and apparently they were neck in neck with sales until “Shake it Off” won, but they have “it” in common, and they are both 100% spot on in what we should all do with “it”.

But before we can get rid of “it” we have to identify what “it” is.  That’s the easy part. “It” is anything that drains us mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  Anything that has us tired, exhausted, discouraged, and/or down.

Sometimes this means attitudes, worries, grudges, and injustices.  But sometimes it means people or our jobs.  And whether it’s a mental thing or an actual person who is our “it” both can feel seemingly impossible to let go of.  

However, and praise His holy name, God encourages us because He wants us to make room for something better.

Isaiah 43:18-19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

These verses are loaded with promise and hope, and the first step to inviting that “new thing” is “forgetting the former things.”  We must all now form a figurative Kumbaya circle, hold hands, and take a step of united faith and believe that if God is telling us to forget, shake it off, and let it go, it’s because it’s possible.

Take a moment to identify your “it” before you pray.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You for another year of life.  I look to You this year for every single thing I and my family need to live a blessed life.  In particular, I desire deeply to be able to let go of ________________________, because it’s a joy killer, it constantly crushes my hope, it consumes my mind, and it sometimes helps the fear creep in.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!