New Hour, New Day, New Year...

Well Happy New Year everyone!!! It's the start of a new year, as well as some new resolutions for some people. Have you ever wondered why we wait until a new year to change? Sure, I understand the tradition of it and all, but why not change NOW? We live in a society full of procrastinators (and yes I am one of them). We put everything off and say, "Oh, I'll do that later. I have time tomorrow." Do we ever get to the things when we say we will (well, besides my mother who gets most everything done when she says she will)? Most of the time we don't. A lot of times we do this same thing in our relationship with Christ. We say, "Oh, I'll do that later, God. I have time to speak to that person tomorrow. Maybe I'll change what You're telling me to change tomorrow...or next year." However, we aren't guaranteed a next year, or a tomorrow, or a next hour. We aren't even guaranteed our next breath.

13Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” -James 4:13-15

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. -Proverbs 27:1

We really don't know what tomorrow holds. Therefore, we shouldn't act as is we are guaranteed tomorrow. Now we still need to live our daily lives to the fullest all for the glory of God, but we shouldn't think that we will see tomorrow. We should stop procrastinating because we aren't guaranteed tomorrow. We should stop waiting around to change until tomorrow or to read our Bible or to spend more time with God in prayer. We should start doing these things today...not wait until the next New Year's Day. Afterall, we have no clue when Jesus is coming back, and that could be before we get around to all of the changing we've been planning on doing.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. -2 Peter 3:10

In my Sunday School class at church we recently talked a lot about the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We talked about how wonderful it will be when He does come, but we also discussed how we should be prepared for that day. As the verse above says, we have no clue when Jesus will come back. When we think about a thief, we never expect his coming (now we can expect Jesus' return, we just don't know WHEN that is). And when the thief comes, he is here and gone before we even know what happened. However, we can be prepared for him (the thief). We can lock our doors and make sure we have an alarm set and a phone by our bed so we can call the police if it should ever happen. In the same way we can be preparing for Christ's return. We need to consistently read our Bible so we can guard our hearts against the enemy and so we can learn how God would like us to live. We need to be praying throughout our days so we can maintain a relationship with God...afterall, really the only way to have a relationship with someone is to talk to them, and the more you talk to that person the more you get to know that person. It's the same way in our relationship with God. We also need to always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you [we] have (1 Peter 3:16). Afterall, for those of us who have accepted Christ as our personal Lord and Savior and who have chosen to follow Him for the rest of our lives, we know the goodness and love and grace and mercy and compassion of God. So why aren't we always looking for ways to share it through our words and actions (and I'm talking to myself a lot on this one). I know it is a constant struggle to show God's love to everyone, especially to the cashier who's scanning everyone's items as slow as molasses and to the car that cut in front of us and to the girl or boy that is constantly putting people down. However, do you really want them to go to hell? And yes, I believe with all of my heart that hell is a real place, a place I don't want any of my friends to be. So are we preparing for Jesus' return in that way too...by telling and showing (because actions speak louder than words) who Jesus really is to the world?

So don't wait until the last minute (or the New Year) and be a procrastinator...start changing today, loving people the way God wants you to love them, and anything else He's been convicting you of lately.

Annie ♥