December 31 I Monday

Malachi

Revelation 22

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!”   
—2 Corinthians 5:17

Several years ago, I wrote a book called Alive in Christ with my purpose being how to find renewed spiritual power. As I was concluding the book, my daughter came into my study and asked, “What has happened so far?” She obviously thought I was writing a story, and maybe I was. Maybe we would find glimpses of our own lives within the pages, but in our own journeys with Christ, it is a good question to ask. What has happened so far?

We should never want nor need to imitate another person’s experience, nor reduce God’s dealing with them to a pattern we would superimpose upon ourselves or on anyone else. When we look for a pattern, God often surprises us by dealing with us in unexpected ways that will leave us in awe. If we are burned out, frustrated and dissatisfied with no conscious communion with God, then we must get hold of the principle that lies behind every expression of Christianity.

It is Christ as our Lord who makes the Christian life work. He directs us, and as we live in submission to His authority and obedience to Him, it is His Spirit as our life that empowers us. He is our means and strength and we trust Him, stepping into every new day and every new situation with the conviction that the One whom we obey is totally able by His indwelling Holy Spirit to accomplish His purpose in us and through us.

If this is not yet your story, regardless of what you have been, where you have been and what you have done, as a child of God you are a new creation in Christ, and He has planned your future. David writes, “…all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). Just before that he says, “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:9-10). Do we trust God for this? Are we willing to let go of human logic and ability to depend on a God who created us?

The Christian life is living in a loving, committed relationship with Jesus Christ, and we cannot allow that to wane. Everything we need is met in Him, and He is our one true source of inner peace and lasting joy. Jesus Christ is the Life that gives us life, and He is forever faithful!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You that no matter my story up to this point, You are the God who created me and deals with me personally. May I never stop discovering the joys of relationship with You.