Ecclesiastes 3 To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven

Congratulations! Happy New Year! Happy New Season! We made it through to 2024! Tell God thank you! It is indeed a blessing. Leaving one year or season and entering into another gives us the opportunity to reflect on where we are and where we want to go. We can ask, “what have I accomplished and what do I have left to do?" We can reflect on a larger scale than our daily check in. You may have like many of us sat down and written out goals or resolutions for this year. Many of us when new year comes focus on the external changes that we want. You may sound like this... I want to lose weight. I’m going to the gym and I’m not leaving this time. ...Or I’m going to change my diet this year. I’ve signed up for Weight Watchers or Noom.” Does this sound familiar?

Tell the truth, how many of you have balled up that New Year’s Resolution list and thrown it in the trash already? There is no need to hide. Many Americans walk away from their resolutions in the first two weeks of making them. The gyms are full in January but before March they are back to their normal attendance levels.

If you are one of these people, it is not too late to hit the reset button. You don’t need a new year to make a change in your life. You only need today. God gave you new breath, new mercy and a fresh chance today. You only need to today to make that Divine opportunity count.

May I make a suggestion? If your list is at the bottom of the recycle bin, don’t bother pulling back out. Let’s start fresh. Together we can make some resolutions right here and right now. This really is your year. It is your year to Seek, Renew and Press. This is your year to lean in and receive what God has for you.

Let’s go to the gospel of Matthew chapter 6. I’ll start with verse twenty-five.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (NIV)

Resolution one - Seek first the kingdom. Everything else is secondary.

The first thing that God has for you this year is His plan and your place in His plan. This year God wants you to make His priorities your own.

So many times when we set our goals and priorities we do not consult our Maker before we make them. We submit our plans God after we have decided that this is what we want we want to do. When we seek His kingdom first our perspective has to change.

I like chess analogies though I do not play chess well at all. In chess, in order for your moves to effective in the long run against your opponent you have to take a step back visually and see the whole board. What does that mean,see the whole board? It is the ability see the changing conclusion of the game with each move on the board you make; and with each move your opponent makes. For each move of a chess piece changes the number of options a player has to win the game. It is more than just seeing several steps ahead. It is seeing to the end.

In life I can only see so far ahead of what consequences my decisions (my moves) have on the long term options in my life. Thankfully, I don’t have to see them because I serve a God who is the author of my beginning and my end. He has asked me to look at Him and follow Him. He is asking us to be moved according to His strategy and not our own.

In our setting priorities and plans for our lives we tend to forget that we are not the chess player, the master of the board who can see to the end. But instead we behave as if we are the chess player and God is a piece that we can move on our board. In truth we are the chess piece in the hands of a loving Master who will not lead us astray.

Let us take the opportunity to change our perspective this year. In this season, let us ask the Lord where we fit in His plan this year and allow Him to move us into place. God can handle the needs and wants that we may have in this world (the what we eat and how we’re clothed stuff) while we focus on His priorities.

Now you may say, “Well God is the one who gives us dreams and visions and the understanding to bring the plans to pass.” This is true. But we also have to remember that there are 3 masters, 3 voices, that have access to our thought life (whether we are sleeping or waking). The voice of God, the voice of the adversary and the voice of your belly or your flesh. Without the wisdom and discernment of the Holy Spirit, we may have difficulty telling these voices apart. It is critical, especially in these last days to be able tell these voices apart and move accordingly.

This is where our second resolution comes in.

Resolution 2 - In this season, I choose to renew my mind. In order to hear clearly, we have to be renewed. Turn with me to Romans 12: 1&2.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, [a]acceptable to God, which is your [b]spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this [c]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [e]acceptable and perfect.

To hear clearly transformation is necessary; and it is not a one time thing. It is a day by day and moment by moment process. Sometimes the loudest of the three voices we just talked about is not the still small voice of the Lord or even the voice of the adversary; no, it is the voice of our flesh. That is the voice that tends to scream in our ears. What our belly, our carnal mind, wants or thinks it needs. It can be hard to tell these voices apart even as older believers. Sometimes we get complacent and say, “Well I’m God’s child? What I want must be what He wants for me, right? Well as Sportin’ Life sang in the opera Porgy & Bess, “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”

We have to fact check what we hear against the word of God. Because God is consistent, He never gives instructions that contradict His principles. Our fleshly mindset can sabotage the very plans God has put in place for us to prosper.

It is essential that we are rewed. Being renewed is like daily detoxing. The mind gets exposed to so much every day even without us trying. But being cleansed is not something we can do on our own. Because we were born into a fallen world our fleshly thinking is in tune with the pattern of the world we live in. Kingdom thinking requires an adjustment in our thinking. How do we do that? How do we drown out the voice of flesh and amp up our receptivity to the voice of God? How do we renew our minds?

We renew our mind through by increasing our time in the presence of God and in the Word of God. It is here that we get refocused and tuned into the frequency of Heaven so that we can be responsive to Kingdom thinking. Do you have have a time or a set location that is set apart for your time with God? If you don’t, choose one. Worship, time in His presence is important. It’s what keep us in our right minds. But this time is more than just talking to the Almighty but for also waiting to hear His response. God responds to our prayers and He responds to our worship. The Holy Spirit comes and cuts through the clutter of our minds to help give us clarity of thought. When we have clarity of thought, we can have clarity of action on how God wants us to move. We will know which voice is seeking our attention and choose to respond to the voice of the Lord.

Now that you have sought the Lord and confirmed the vision; we can make our next resolution. Turn with me to Philippians chapter 3.

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Resolution 3 - This year, let us press or lean in to the plan of God and not abandon it. I don’t know the vision or the tasks that God has given you to complete but I do know that whatever it is; it is precious and it deserves our undistracted attention. He has given you a task that cannot be handed off to someone else. Even with clarity of vision, there will be moments of adversity. There will be times that will be hard, but don’t give up. Instead, press. This year when you feel the push of adversity, push back. Press toward the goal God has given you. Difficulties come when you are in the right direction.

Sometimes pressing means that we have forget the pain of past failures or flawed decisions making. These are things that paralyze our movement. If you have asked for forgiveness, great! Learn the lesson from that failure and keep pressing.

Paul was saying in this verse, don't’ think that I have always done this the right way….that I have this all figured out or that I’m already there… or that I've already accomplished it all. No! I’m reaching just like you. I’m striving toward the goals God has for me.

We can do this. We can press into the will of God and see His plans for our lives become reality this year.

Whatever has overwhelmed you, whatever may have tried to knock you to the dirt, you can get back up. you can start again. All you need is today. You do not need whatever you had to leave behind. What you need in this season, you already have. Whatever you lack will be poured into you by the Holy Spirit. All you need to do is say yes to Him. All you need is today. All you need is this moment. All you need is now.

Maybe this is the new parent season. The empty nest season. The caregiver season. The reinvent your career season. Whatever the season … Let us in this new season, Seek 1st the kingdom, renew our minds so that we can hear God clearly; and press toward the vision God has given us so that when we pray, we can say in earnest: Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in us as Your will is done in Heaven.

Be blessed.

Fete Faith