Powerful prayer is our season ending, year ending focus today. You know, this is the time of the year where people look forward to the dawning of a new year. With that, they become reflective. They become goal oriented because they realize that the currents of the past year led them to places that they were not happy being. Some of these new year type resolutions deal with course corrections. You know, making a clean, fresh start. The prospect of heading in a direction they knew they should have been going all along buoys them. It’s a hopeful, energizing time, this New Year’s piece. We should encourage it along. The Lord knows we need all the help that we can get. Now, you know how this New Year’s celebration works, right? On the last day of the year at the stroke of midnight in Times Square in New York City, multitudes cheer, horns sound, whistles blow, and people laugh and cry for joy. Amidst the celebration are the shouts of “Happy New Year!” This spectacle is repeated in succession in the various time zones from the Atlantic Seaboard to the far western reaches of Hawaii. We say, “A New Year has come!”
Now what?
Are all things right now that clock has struck 12 on December 31st with your freshly minted resolution in hand? Of course not, the stroke of the hour simply has marked the dawning of another day. Once the fireworks are spent and the confetti has fallen, you are left with your naked decision: “I’m going to read the Bible through in a year” You must ace this.
If you don’t fall back into the same old rut. No, years become new only if we make them so. Resolutions for new days, new beginnings, opportunities, and dreams are not to be made only in the moment’s excitement; but long after the glamor is gone these resolutions are to become the order of each day. This is the stuff of life.
What if you can’t think of a resolution of consideration? Might I suggest one?
As we move on to 2 Thessalonians 3:1–2, we come upon Paul’s request for prayer so that the gospel could quickly move forward. Do you think that might be a resolution worthy of consideration? Pray that the gospel would go forward quicker than ever before? Do you think this is a resolution you can carry forward into a new year and maybe beyond that? Why such a resolution — well first, you have Bible for it — that’s what Paul did. Second, you are a lover of God’s Word and you cherish it to such a degree that you want others to hear this good news. Third, you highly esteem the heavy price God paid that we might have it. Is there a chance that this year is the year where you lay aside selfish ambition and allow God’s will to become supreme? Is this the year you elevate the perpetuation of the gospel to its rightful place in your life? Well, those are good questions. So let’s home in on Why Powerful Prayer to Advance the Gospel Is Right — that’s our focus on this year end episode of Light on Life.
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Did You Know that A Good God Has A Good Plan For Your Life?
