Too Big To Handle

Do you have responsibility for a big project? Do you feel dwarfed by the responsibility?

Maybe it’s a massive system at work, possibly you have been given the task of raising a child? Do you have an inventor’s mind and need additional creativity? Are you training young men and women? Do you have the responsibility for growing crops and tending livestock? Maybe you are working on the next medical break through?

If the task before you is great I want you to know that our God is greater!

Let’s look at some big jobs in the Bible: naming all the animals and plants, building an ark and packing it with provisions, leading a million plus on a desert journey, building the tabernacle, building the Temple, conquering an entire civilization, bringing the plan of salvation to the world. Some pretty mind-boggling assignments, right?

“David said, ‘All these plans were written with the Lord guiding me. He helped me understand everything in the plans.’ 20 David also said to his son Solomon, ‘Be strong and brave and finish this work. Don’t be afraid, because the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will help you until all the work is finished. He will not leave you. You will build the Lord’s Temple. 21 The groups of the priests and Levites are ready for all the work on God’s Temple. Every skilled worker is ready to help you with all the work. The officials and all the people will obey every command you give.’”I Chronicles 28:19-21 ERV

God is into details and if you spend time listening, He will give you the direction you need. Come to Him, come with pen in hand so you can write down what He says. Listen, write and obey.

“Without faith no one can please God. Whoever comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him.” Hebrews 11:6 ERV

Come to Him in faith believing that He has the answers and that He will provide you with the answers you need. You won’t be disappointed!

Beginning Again

This will be my sixty-eighth new year. For many years I paid no attention to the changing year on the calendar. When I was a young teen it was an opportunity to stay up until midnight to watch the “new year come in”.

In my late 40’s I took on the attitude that the new year would come if I was awake or asleep and I would go to bed whenever but in my 50’s something changed. Not with the time I would go to bed but with my heart.

Some time within the first few days of the year, when family and friends have gone, Dave and I take communion. We dedicate ourselves, our home and the activities of the upcoming year to the Lord.

“In the beginning God”!

I can’t think of a better way to start anything than with the recognition that God, the Father, Jesus, the Son and the Holy Spirit need to be with me at the beginning of whatever it is I’m about to do.

“Before the world began, the Word was there. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was there with God in the beginning. Everything was made through him, and nothing was made without him.” John 1:1-3 ERV

Christ, the Word, was with God, the Father, in the beginning and He desires to be with us in our beginnings. The beginning of life, schooling, careers, marriage, parenthood, a new year, a new day. Whatever has a beginning He desires to be first.

“Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 CEB

Maybe this is your fortieth or fiftieth new year but in all those years you have never really committed one to the Lord. This can be your first new year of dedication, seeking the Father’s purpose.

“God’s Son was before all else, and by him everything is held together. 18 He is the head of his body, which is the church. He is the very beginning, the first to be raised from death,
so that he would be above all others. 19 God himself was pleased to live fully in his Son. 20 And God was pleased for him to make peace by sacrificing his blood on the cross” Colossians 1:17-20 CEV

We have a new year before us, we are beginning again. None of us know what 2022 will be like but our Father does, and we can have confidence in Him and His love for us. Let’s begin again making Him our priority.