2013, Another Chance

So it’s 2013 Happy New Year!!

(yesterday 01/05/13 before work)

Often times around this time you hear about people making resolutions. Everyone loves to quote “New Year New me”, “out with the old in with the new”, “new year on to the next”. I mean I could go on about the quotes that people like to quote around New Years. My Pastor calls it another chance. If your reading this you have been given another chance at life. If you’re a Christian you have been given another chance to have true repentance (turn away from sins), another chance to truly live for God, another chance to help with the building of God’s kingdom. You have been given another chance to use the gifts God has given you. My Pastor preached from Luke 13:1-9 those verses are talking about how Jesus was looking to the fig tree for figs, but the tree wasn’t producing any fruit. Often times we are like fig trees. We look like we’re bearing fruit because we aren’t as bad as other people. I’m sure you have gotten that comparison. “Oh you’re nothing like people your age” more than likely they are comparing you to people of the world. Yes of course we should be NOTHING like people of the world, but God has such a greater expectation of us. We shouldn’t be comparing ourselves to one another; we should compare ourselves to ourselves. We should want to be better spiritually than we were in 2012. We should want to go harder for Christ this year than we did last year. A lot of people end up depressed around the New Year because they feel they are in the same situation they were in since last year if you think about it we are. The date on the calendar didn’t change your financial situation. The date on the calendar didn’t change your living situation. Most of us are in the same place in life we were in 2012.  You don’t have to be in the same place spiritually. That’s what’s so amazing about God we don’t have to WAIT to get to know him; we don’t have to WAIT to live for him. We can do that now, we can turn our lives around right now. We have another chance, we have new mercies, new grace, and we have stepped into a new season, a season of favor, a season of expectation. God has so much confidence in us; he has invested in us greatly. He sent his son to die for us, surely he expects something’s from us. He expects us (children of God) to be holy, pure, have true repentance, to walk in love, to be obedient to his will and his word, to be wise (ask for wisdom), to have faith in him. We can’t please God unless we have faith, it’s impossible. I also personally believe if God has called you and you have responded to the call it’s up to us to find out our purpose. Once we find our purpose we have to move in it. I think often times we get busy in life and then church just become a weekly thing. If we’re Children of God, we are children daily. Work doesn’t stop us from being children of God and it shouldn’t stop us from doing his work. There are so many people on this earth, what if God stopped doing his work in our life because he had to deal with tragedy elsewhere? Wouldn’t be feel cheated? Like whoa what’s going? Imagine God saying whoa what’s going on, I’ve given this person the testimony, the wisdom, the Power and the Holy Spirit and they still aren’t moving in my will, they still aren’t fulfilling their purpose. To me that would hurt God’s feelings. He expects certain things of us. To me he doesn’t ask much, not nearly as much as we ask of him. So why can’t we live up to these expectations? In Luke chapter 13 Jesus has been coming to the vineyard to seek the fruit of the fig tree and he didn’t have any fruit for 3 years!! 3 years! Then he says “Lord, let it alone this year also, til I shall dig about it and dung it 9) and if it bears it fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down”. That fig tree got another chance. Jesus gave that fig tree another chance because he had expectations for it! God has expectations for every single one of us that are his children. Many times he comes to the garden (our heart) and searches for the fruit we are to be bearing. Many of us are like fig trees. We have the “leaves” looking and acting like we’re bearing fruit, but once you get up close we have nothing. No fruit! Jesus has spoken before about cutting branches down that aren’t bearing fruit. What if we were cut down, but our cutting down was death. What if death fell upon us because we weren’t bearing fruit?? I believe this 2013 year it’s time to bear the fruit. You know a lemon tree because it has lemons, same for an orange and mango tree. If we want to be identified as children of God we need to have some fruit hanging off our branches to show that. Anyone can call themselves a child of God, but what is your lifestyle saying??. Let’s take this walk with God serious. Let’s look to improve our spiritual mindset. Improve our spiritual relationship with Christ. We expect great things from God, lets live up to the expectations he has for us.

If you love someone tell them

I love you

Destaynee