Resolute in Resolutions!

Resolute in Resolutions???????

Resolutions are not really what this blog is about simply that it is often the first thing we think about at the beginning of a New Year and also the first thing that gets binned almost as quickly. I do want you to make at least ONE resolution and indeed be resolute in the keeping of it BUT I’ll come to that at the end.

Lorraine and I arrived back in Tenerife on Monday (6^th January 2014). We so enjoyed Christmas with the family and as always it was heart wrenching leaving them all again but those emotions were mixed with the sense of anticipation as we thought about the year that lay ahead of us. ‘Where does time go?’ is the mantra of us who are of a certain age, but it is now one year since we first landed back on the Island with suitcases in our hands, butterflies in our stomachs, dreams in our heads BUT a sure Word from God in our hearts. 2013 proved to be both an exciting and challenging twelve months, with so much to encourage us and just a little to discourage us. We have experienced great times viewing some grand vistas on top of the mountains but have also had to trudge through some darkened valleys as well BUT we have proven the Word God gave us and the God who gave us the Word to be true, faithful and trustworthy..Today while reading a little thought from Anne Graham Lotz we were reminded of a verse from Isaiah 64 “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.” V4 the preceding verses perfectly sum up our times calling on the Lord as we approached the end of 2012, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence as when fire kindles brushwood - and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!  When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. V1-3

God answered our prayers then and He will answer our prayers now, of that we are entirely confident. (You can read of things we are praying for by clicking on the '5 Great Grace Pledges & Promises' on the ‘Home Page’)

What am I saying to you however??? Well, I don’t know what 2013 was like for you or what expectations, hopes, dreams or prayers you have prayed for 2014 BUT can I just leave you with this thought before asking you make one definite New Year resolution (although with God you need neither a new year nor a new day to make a new resolution…right now is just perfect!!)

About 4.00am this morning (Wednesday 8 January) Lorraine and I were wakened out of our nights sleep with the noise of what sounded like great hailstones hitting the shutter of our bedroom window. We got up to find Tenerife in the midst of another huge thunder storm. Ah! It might not rain here that often but when it rains it rains!!! This was the second such unusual phenomenon to hit the Island within two months, the last in December wreaked havoc its leftover debris still needing to be cleared away even in January. Fortunately last nights storm was not as severe as the previous one, nonetheless it was a scary time AGAIN!!!                  It was only when I woke this morning that I realised something so profound, s-o-o-o amazing!!!! 

(I know you would have got this immediately or would you or do you yet??????) 

You see whilst the storm raged outside I was safe, secure, dry, unaffected and unharmed inside my apartment. I slept unworried and without fear even with the rain battering off the walls outside…..WOW!!! Something was dawning in my head!!!                                                                                                     

Now if you know anything about Tenerife you will know that for most of the year, at least on the South side of the Island, it is a bland, barren, brown coloured landscape BUT as soon as it rains that landscape is transformed and right now after these two huge storms, Tenerife is more like Ireland and the countryside is just a swathe of green, beautiful, gloriously colourful. What seemed dead and decaying is alive and vibrant once again. You see, we can see all too clearly the devastation the storms can bring yet fail to see that through them new and renewed life can also come, indeed, as here, it is only through those storms that the real beauty of Tenerife is suddenly revealed…..

Are you getting this?????

Let me apply this then to you and to me….Storms of life are inevitable. They do come and will come again. If you are not in one right now, likelihood is you have just come through one or very soon will be right in the middle of one! If you are a Child of God I want you to understand that although you may feel the effects of those storms, physically, emotionally and spiritually, yet God will not allow those storms to destroy you or change your standing in Him. You are secure in Him. You do not need to be afraid of any storm no matter how fierce because God is with you and will bring you through that storm and right in the middle of it God Almighty will reveal to you His unmistakable, awesome presence.  King David knew more than most what it was to face danger and peril and anxious moments and brutal storms and this is what he wrote……………………Psalm 91

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.” 

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler   

And from the perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. 

A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up, 

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.                                                              “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble;I will deliver him and honour him.
With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”

Furthermore, like the storm’s effects on the landscape of Tenerife, life’s storms, those storms God permits to touch your life are the very things that when they are passed might leave the odd scar or two BUT will most certainly bring about new life, new colour, new beauty a whole new you that would not likely happen without those very storms!!! The Bible reminds me that God’s will for me and for every child of His, every believer is this…GOOD, PERFECT AND ACCEPTABLE  so says Romans 12:2 or as another paraphrase puts it, “the plan of God for you is good (for YOU), meets all his demands (pleases Him) and moves towards the goal of true maturity(Christlikeness – Perfection).” Add to that Jeremiah 29:11 you will know this one so well, I am sure, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” In other words what God is doing and however He does it, is always for your good, always for your best and is about perfecting you..and if God could do it any other way He would do it that way..

So as you ponder another new year perhaps you are praying for the storm that has pursued you from 2013 to go away or at least ease a little bit or  like most of us praying  that 2014 will be a Happy New Year, meaning storm and trouble free??? Well my advice to you today is think again, then pray again, ”God I want to know what is your GOOD, PERFECT and ACCEPABLE will for me in 2014”, that’s the only way that you will have a truly Happy New Year and understand and cope with the storms that lie ahead of you and appreciate fully the purpose they bring with them…

Now here’s that resolution I want you make and resolutely keep it….. To read the Bible, the whole Bible this year..You say I want to know God’s will; I want to understand what God’s plan is for me?? Then you need to know god and you need to listen to what God says to you.. Remember that verse I quoted right at the beginning? Let me repeat it “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.” Isaiah 64:4 Notice the last FOUR words of that verse!!! The Apostle Paul uses these same words to encourage the saints at Corinth, “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” Wow, wow, wow…I can’t wait for that….AH! Now there the secret to it all..Waiting on God..Taking time out alone and spending time reading, listening and acting on what God says. That only comes with patience and discipline, a resolution that is well worth making today.. (You can find help in reading your Bible through in a year by clicking onto ‘Bible Plans’ which you will find on the front page of www.cristianoscommunitychurch.com

One final word for you from A W Tozer this time...