How Will You Finish 2012?
Author: Pastor Darrell Roland
As you read this, we've
all begun our journey through this new year. We're all hoping and
trusting that God has a great year in store for us, yet many of us
will only experience the hope of these great dreams. This year I
want more for you and I than the dream of an outcome. Too often we
get stuck there, not knowing what will propel us into all that we
dreamed of as the year began. I want to take a moment and share a
couple things that I believe will have a huge impact on our finish
of 2012.
We kicked off our 2012
PGP (Daily Bible Reading Plan) with Day One of 2012 giving us great
insight into what I believe can be our first step toward dream
fulfillment instead of dream frustration in 2012. Through the
passages of Joshua 14, Caleb is described as a man who "wholly
followed God". Not only did he follow God, but he followed God
"wholly". This means that even when it did not make sense in the
natural, Caleb followed God. Often, you and I want to follow God
when it makes sense and even in some areas we may be able to follow
Him wholly in low risk areas of our lives, but hold on, in a high
risk, we may follow our mental pictures over our spiritual
promises. In this case, Caleb and all his friends stood a chance of
death, but that did not cause any concern for him, because he
"wholly followed God". In 2012, you and I will surely face big
decisions this year that may not be life or death as Caleb, however
we will face decisions that will not make sense physically,
financially or professionally. In these decision making moments, we
need to pause to reflect on our promised inheritance for 2012. Am I
saying that the year has an inheritance? No, I am saying we do for
the person we are in the year. Let's be people that when the year
ends, we are described as someone who "wholly followed God". Then I
believe that God will reward us with an inheritance. Are you wholly
following God? Will you wholly follow God this year? Will you do it
in every area of your life?
The second lesson I
noticed in Caleb is found In Numbers 14, where Caleb was asked to
scout out Canaan and scout he did. He came back with a report of a
spiritual view that only he saw. In verse 24, he is described as a
man with a different spirit that passionately followed, once again
resulting in receiving an inheritance. In the midst of all the
negative, yet physically accurate reports, he called for action. He
said "let's go take the land, we can do it". Caleb was a man of
action. This is our second step toward bringing our dream of 2012
into fruition for us and those around us. We have to take action on
the vision that God has given us for the year. Caleb did not want
to stand by and let the dream happen, he wanted to be used in
process of making the dream happen. Will you join me in
passionately following this year? Will you fully engage with God in
the spiritual journey for this year?
If Caleb's adjectives
sound familiar to you, let me rehearse our mission statement here
at The Harvest with you. The Harvest is
creating a place of love and grace for all people, where everyone
is becoming wholly devoted passionate followers of Jesus
Christ.
Will you align you
life with this mission? It is much more than
the mission of The Harvest. It is a great life plan to make your
dreams come true for 2012 and beyond. It worked for Caleb and it
will work for us.