From the End to the Beginning!

I always tend to get a little excited around this time of the year as we pack up the old year and then unleash a fresh, new and optimistic bundle of our uninhibited goals, plans and dreams for the New Year ahead!  It is kind of like packing up the very last box of Christmas decorations, placing it back in storage and then walking into the house with a whole new chance for life, unincumbered by last year’s junk!

Does that feeling sound familiar to any of you?  For as long as I can remember, I have been as planner… or maybe more accurately stated: “A DREAMER” and proud of it!  And then, low and behold, who should I meet as I neared the end of my high school years but another DREAMER… packaged up in a sweet, petite, freckled and joyful personality that I fell for… Hook, Line and Sinker!  It was like the direction of my life was all preplanned and I had all that I could do but to jump on the band wagon and Hold on Tight!

So, with all that in mind, the beginning of the year has always been a special time for me to cast a vision for the coming 12 months.  Piper and I liked to take some time away from the hustle and bustle of life and refresh as we set our hearts together to DREAM and then set the course for the New Year.

One of the things that we learned as we DREAMED and planned and then set out to physically accomplish our goals, was to know when to Come to the End of our Words, and Enter into the Beginning of God’s Words!   Let me explain.  The Apostle Peter put it best, when talking about our believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and then expressing our love for Him saying,

“Whom having not seen, ye love; in Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” (I Peter 1:8 – KJV)

Peter is telling us here, that in order to really enter into the JOY of the Lord in our worship and honor of Him… that we have to come to the place where we let go of ourselves, STOP TALKING and enter into the realm of His GLORY… where we can no longer express our LOVE and JOY for Him in our own human words!

So, what does this have to do with pursuing our PLANS, VISIONS and DREAMS for the New Year… EVERYTHING!

I, like many of you, am NOT one to give up on my PLANS, VISIONS AND DREAMS.  It is one of the many characteristics that my wife and I shared throughout the 48 years that we enjoyed together.  Therefore, like Peter shared, whenever we hit a wall in the pursuit of what we believed to be a God-given DREAM… we would take some time individually or together (as time and circumstances allowed) and come before the Father God in prayer in order to seek His direction and/or clarification.

We also learned through time, experience, practice and with some mistakes mixed in… to spend more time in prayer LISTENING than we did in SPEAKING!  Being musicians (not that I would put myself anywhere near the level of talent of my wife…), we would praise and worship the Lord in song, confess scripture, pray in tongues and speak out our verbal needs and requests before Him… but then there came the all-important time when we would quiet ourselves and be still and listen with our hearts to that small still voice speaking on the inside of us.

If you’re anything like me… I’m not always a fan of too much quiet… and while I enjoy our quiet neighborhood, the soft rustling of the trees blowing in the wind on our camping/hiking adventures… I do play music throughout the day when I am home.  I also do not care for prolonged periods of silence when I am in conversation with someone else… but like I said, I am learning to be quiet and at peace when I go into prayer with God… and remind myself that prayer is a TWO-WAY conversation!  There is a time to talk… and an even more important time to LISTEN!

That’s the time when we Come to the END of OUR WORDS and enter into the BEGINNING of HIS!

Isaish 46:10 talks about God knowing the END from the BEGINNING.  The Message Bible puts it this way declaring’

“From the very BEGINNING telling you what the ENDING will be, All along letting you in on what is going to happen, Assuring you, 'I'm in this for the long haul, I'll do exactly what I set out to do,” 

So, it only makes sense… that if God knows the END of what’s happening in our lives, from the very BEGINNING… then I want to spend as little time as possible in trying to figure things out for myself… STOP TALKING and begin to quiet down so that I can hear what HE has to say about the situation in which I have come to Him for guidance in… RIGHT?

When I am in conversation with the Lord in prayer… I want to quickly come to the END of MY words and enter into the BEGINNING of HIS words.

Wouldn’t you agree!  Sounds like a plan for 2024… doesn’t it!

Have a great weekend.  EXPECT God’s BEST and as you do… watch over your words while you remember to LISTEN for HIS!