We are resolution-breakers...please teach us, in deeper ways, how You, oh God, are the promise-keeper.
"Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations." (Deuteronomy 7:9)
We are so quick to get discouraged, disheartened, and disappointed...so let us put all our hope in You.
"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." (Psalm 43:5)
We are afraid of failure...help us to remember that you have won the victory.
"For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith." (1 John 5:4)
We are so distracted by all our wants, desires, and dreams for the new year...teach us, Lord, to desire your purposes first.
"Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."(Proverbs 19:21)
We are eager to measure ourselves by our successes and achievements...may you, God, be our only boast.
"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14)
The end of one year and the start of a new is wonderfully renewing, and yet, so full of opportunity for self-absorption. Lord, help us to examine ourselves and to be introspective without making idols of self-bettering and fulfilled living. If there's any good in us, it is Christ...if there is any fulfillment in our lives, it is You, alone.
Let all discipline, striving, and resolving be in response--and in REJOICING over-- what you have already accomplished in us, not what we think we must accomplish for you.
Glory be to you, oh God: "The strength to follow your commands, could never come from me...let my song forever be: My only boast is you!" (from Sovereign Grace Music's "All I Have Is Christ") ...
Enjoy the free download, and Happy 2014 to you...Jesus is all, friends.
Because of Grace,
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