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A New Year of Opportunities

As I was thinking about what to write this morning, I put in one of my favourite CDs by Brian Doerksen to listen to.
One song spoke to me. It is called , “Lead Us Lord (Dream Again)”, and it speaks to those times in life when we come to a crossroads.

Every new year is about new opportunities.
Each opportunity means a choice for you and I.
As Christians, we desire to make choices that will honour God.
But how do we do that?
How do we make decisions when there is more than one option that seems good?

It comes to yielding our lives to God and allowing Him to lead us forward.
The words to Brian Doerksen’s song goes like this:

Here we stand
At a crossroads again
Like you said
In time the seasons change

Looking back
We recall the blessing and the pain
But now we turn our hearts toward
What is still to come
We want to dream again

Lead us Lord
Into a life of fruitfulness
Prepare our hearts to risk again
As we trust
Taking simple steps of obedience we know
That you will lead us Lord

In many ways, a New Year is a bit of a crossroads for many of us.
We begin to think about the future, maybe the decisions that need to be made. changes that may need to be made?
Sometimes in life, it may often appear to us that God is leading in a direction that doesn’t make any sense at all.
But God is not a combination of theology and logic.
He is God.

A case in point is the crossing of the Jordan River, recorded in Joshua. Common sense said God’s timing was all wrong.

Actually, it was the perfect time.
If they had crossed when the river was normal, they probably would have been met with opposition.

Crossing at harvest time, there was plenty of food for the millions of Israelites and the miracle of crossing a flooded river would cause the enemy to tremble at God’s power.

To capture the great walled city of Jericho, God again chose a strange approach that defied human reasoning.
Instead of preparing battering rams to knock down the wall or using ladders to scale the wall, or digging trenches under the wall, the ark of God was carried by the priests around the city once a day for six days.

On the seventh day the ark was carried around the city seven times while the soldiers marched in silence and the priests blew the trumpets of ram’s horns.
When the command was given to shout, the walls fell down flat.
Their faith and obedience led to victory!

Maybe the Lord is leading you down a road that seems to make no sense at all.
It may be the road of forgiving someone who has deeply hurt you.
It could be the choice of persevering in your Christian witness in spite of opposition and ridicule.
It might mean transitioning when there is stability.

Change is difficult.
Change is risky, but God is great!
Whatever it is, you can be sure that as you walk in faith and obedience, God will enable you to do it.

Proverbs 3:5,6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

There is no such thing as good or bad timing to a God with no beginning and no end. If we commit our lives to Him to guide and direct,
He is faithful and will lead us in the way we should go.
Sometimes it makes perfect “human” sense and sometimes it doesn’t, but through it all, God is…

May God give us faith to trust Him in the crossroads in life.
May He continue to guide and bless as we enter this new year.

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