One Great Thing About The New Year

Happy new year to you friends!

I hope you had a great festive season with family and friends. I also hope you got a time to rest, recharge and reflect. I don’t know about you but I am so excited for 2022. I know God has amazing things in store.

One great thing about the New Year is the prospect of something new. New beginnings, new opportunities, new doors and so on. Everything is new, new, new

But I won’t be talking about that today. I want to focus on something else.

Another great thing about a new year is the second chance we get to either make things right, to do things the right way, finish a project, repair broken bridges in a relationship, to correct some mistakes made in the previous year, and the list goes on. Whatever that thing is a new year brings with it a second chance to try again.

And this is important to know because a lot of people carry shame, guilt, anxiety, fear and so many other negative things from the past year which has a definite impact on the current year. Those people end up believing that the New Year has nothing different to offer them.

If you are one of those people I want to encourage you that the God we serve is the God of second chances. No matter how bad you have messed up He wants to give you a second chance. Take Jonah for example.

God called him to go preach to the people of Nineveh but he ran away from doing what God told him to do. But instead of disowning him or punishing him, God gave him a second chance to do the right thing,

“Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you. This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.”

Jonah 3:1-3

The Lord spoke to Jonah a second time and instead of running away like before Jonah grabbed the opportunity to do it right. And because he did Nineveh was saved from God’s punishment.

I also think of Peter who denied the Lord three times. One would think he blew it for good but Jesus gave him a second chance.

We serve a God of second chances. So as we are now in 2022 don’t let the mistakes and failures of 2021 stop you from having a great year. Take the guilt, shame, fear and anxiety you are carrying to the Lord’s feet. He has a second chance waiting for you.

Bless you friends

Make the most of His blessings…..

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“Some people dig a fork into the pie but are too lazy to 

raise it to their mouth. “

Proverbs 19:24

 

The poor people! They have the tools (the fork), they have the

blessings from God, the opportunities from God (the pie) but are

too lazy to eat the goodness laid out before them!!

 

May that not happen to us friends.

May we use our gifts and talents in the right way.

May we take the opportunities God has given us.

May we be not like the lazy man who sits and does nothing!

 

I have to admit I act like that man a lot. God has laid out a clear

plan and path for me and I get so distracted. It’s getting better

though. I am fighting the distractions but there is still work to

be done.

I am not doing enough of what I know I am supposed to be

doing!

I don’t want to be that man !

I will not be that man!

 

What about you?

Are you staring at the pie?

 

Let’s enjoy the pie together friends!

God has so much in store for us.

We need to step out.

We need to say no to somethings.

We need to say yes to somethings.

Let’s not let laziness get the best of us…..!

 

Amen

 

Rolain

 

 

 

She was a nobody but faith………

This is part of three of my series on Hebrews 11. Read part two here. As I start this post I would like to share a verse that got my attention,

[Prompted] by faith Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed along with those who refused to believe and obey, because she had received the spies in peace [without enmity]. Hebrews 11: 31

Rehab is a hero of the faith but I wonder if she sees the same thing?? If we spoke to her now would she say she is a hero proudly? A lot of people read her story and are inspired and it is good but let us look deeper into her life. She was a prostitute and that meant a few things:

– She slept with men for money. It didn’t matter if the man was married or a drunk, or abusive, as long as they had money she would sleep with them.

– She was looked down upon by society.

– It’s very possible she struggled with a low self esteem

– She was finding it hard to make ends meet and maybe that is why she became a prostitute.

– She lived in fear (it’s possible she was threatened by men she slept with)

– No one respected her.

– She may have broken a few families up. It’s possible wives found out their husbands slept with Rahab and left!

– She must have dealt with guilt and condemnation on a regular basis because of the things she had to do. .

– Did she try to commit suicide???

I would like to make something clear before we move on,

I look up to Rahab and in no way am I trying to tear down her reputation and what God had done for her. I am trying to paint a picture of what she probably went through to make you understand what God saved her from. Because despite all the bad she did and all the bad that happened to her, through faith she was saved. Her name is recorded among the Greats because she trusted God! Because of faith she saved her family and was found in Jesus’s lineage!! (Matthew 1:5)

We need faith and without it we can do nothing pleasing to God. Do I understand what faith is? Not really. What I do know is God did amazing things through the people who trusted Him. No matter what people labeled them, or where they grew up, they turned the world upside down!

This is what the word says about these great men and women of faith,

[Men] of whom the world was not worthy–roaming over the desolate places and the mountains, and [living] in caves and caverns and holes of the earth. (Hebrews 11:38 AMP)

Think about all Rahab could of gone through. How could God use her, one could think but in the end what matters is He did! No one is too far off for God to use!

You might feel like you are of no use and your life doesn’t count for something. You might think you have committed too much sin to ever do anything great or you may be plagued with guilt and condemnation but know God has a plan for you! He wants to do great things through you and that is why He wants you to trust Him. Only God can turn your life into something great but you have to have faith in Him!

Rahab did that. She stepped out in faith to God despite what she had done and what people thought and saved the spies. As she used her faith her life changed never to be the same ever. What an amazing testimony for her. I am going to look forward to meeting her and hearing her story! Her story is an example of what God can do with someone who has faith in Him!

Our faith in God can do things we never imagined ever. It can open doors only God can open. Have faith in Him.

Rolain