Corona Devo 1772
We are about a week into the New Year. Many of our exciting, well-meaning, and high-hoped New Year's resolutions are starting to dissolve.
We don't mean to let them slip...but it's just so hard to maintain new ways of life. The gyms are (much) less populated than on the first and second days of the year.
We snuck a second piece of cake...or those chips: even though we said we wouldn't.
And we've already snapped/retorted/mouthed-off to one of our loved ones, even though we swore (prayed and promised!) that we wouldn't.
Yes, the bloom is off the New Year's rose, and we are no stranger to that familiar feeling of defeat that our self-failures bring.
For every deep breath that we were enjoying a week or so ago, we now catch ourselves holding our breath, as the responsibilities and pressures and dates of the coming days and weeks and year hover over us and settle into our schedule and our skin.
We feel the tightness in our neck and even in our chest. The alarm clock went off early this morning, and it's back to school, and back to work, and back to routine, and back to reality. The New Year is setting in for real now.
We don't want to feel like this, Sis.
But before we settle back into feeling unsettled, let God have His say.
Let the Lord breathe life into our calendar and our lives today.
Into our lack-of-peace...God brings His peace.
The Bible is God's love letter to his children, and that is us. He knows exactly what feelings are creeping into our schedule and hearts today, and He gives us these verses to rejuvenate us today.
Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord.
(16) They rejoice all day long in your wonderful reputation. They exult in your righteousness.
(17) You are their glorious strength. It pleases you to make us strong.
(18) Yes, our protection comes from the Lord, and he, the Holy One of Israel, has given us our king. ~Psalm 89:15-18
~~~
No matter what day or month of the year we are reading these verses, they are like a soothing balm that we can rub into the irritations of our today.
And they are not pie-in-the-sky fairy tales. These words are God's Truth and His promises that He lays out in the wide-open for us to find and embrace: in His Word (the Bible).
If the New Year's resolutions are slipping and our motivation has gone missing...find God's Word today and be encouraged.
Happy are those of us who hear the joyful call to worship. We will walk in the light of your presence, Lord. We rejoice all day long in your wonderful reputation. We exult in your righteousness. You are our glorious strength, Lord. It pleases you to make us strong. Yes, our protection comes from the Lord, and he, the Holy One of Israel, has given us our king. (Psalm 89:15-18). Amen.
We can still keep our New Year's resolutions if we want, or we can scrap them altogether. But we do not have to be tense, forlorn, embarrassed, stressed or hopeless today. We can be happy because God has called us to worship Him, and when we do, we will walk in the light of His presence.
Not because of our own resolutions, but in worshiping the Lord, we can rejoice all day and we can exult in His righteousness.
We will find over and over again in this life that we are weak. But the Lord, He is our glorious strength, and (wonder of wonders!) it pleases Him to make us strong.
Regardless of our resolutions and personal results, we can rest and rejoice in our King who reigns over our daily routines.
Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord. ~Psalm 89:15
sarah
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