Today Someone...2008 - This New Year

Dear Lord,

Today someone prays, at the start of 2008,

That you will discover the plans the Lord has for you.

Plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

Plans to give you hope and a future.

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord,

"Call upon Me, come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

Seek Me with all your heart, and you will find Me.

I will be found by you, and I will bring you back from captivity."

"Build houses and settle down;

Plant gardens and eat what they produce.

Marry and have sons and daughters;

Find wives for your sons, give your daughters in marriage."

"Seek peace and prosperity;

Do not be deceived by false prophets;

Do not listen to your dreams,

I have not sent them," declares the Lord.

"Listen to the Word of the Lord,

Do not do outrageous things;

Do not commit adultery with your neighbour;

Do not speak lies in the Lord's name."

"I will gather you from all nations and places, I will bring you back to Me.

If you, who are called by my name, will humble yourself and pray,

Seek My face and turn from your wicked ways,

I will hear from heaven and I will forgive your sins."

Amen.

This prayer is based on the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. (Jeremiah 29).

It is a word of encouragement from God to His people to get their priorities right and then He will bless them.
This message is echoed many times in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments . It is as meaningful for us today as it was for those in exile back then.

How? You may ask.

So often problems, work, relationships and the business of daily life cause us to lose sight of God.
Food has to be put on the table;
Exams have to be passed;
Homes need to be cleaned;
Distances need to be travelled;
Deadlines need to be met.

"I will pray later!"
"I will pray at Church on Sunday!"
"I will go to Church this Christmas and pray!"

The distance between the times we spend with God gets greater until we don't even realise we have pushed Him out of our lives.

We are all guilty of this...right back to the Bible days of those in exile.

Does God give up on us?

No.
All through the Bible God calls on His children to humble themselves and pray.
He wants us to make the decision to change and return to Him.
He promises to bless us in many ways when we turn to Him in prayer.
He says He will give us a heart to know Him, that He is Lord.
He is such a generous Father, God makes it so easy for us to know Him.

BUT...
He has given us the free choice to accept Him as our Lord and Saviour.
As we go into this new year...2008...let us choose to have God as the centre of our lives.
Let us begin and end each day in thanksgiving to Him for our salvation.

I want the Holy Spirit to transform me so that Christ is the Lord of every moment of every day.
I want God to become the be-all and end-all of my existence, the Alpha and Omega of my life.

Do you?

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
The old has gone, the new has come!”
(2 Corinthians 5:17)