Dave’s Monday Blast – January 2, 2022

Happy New Year! Yep, another opportunity for reflection. As you look back over the past year, do you see any exciting accomplishments? To that question, Pastor Charles Stanley comments: “Maybe you reached a goal or started working toward one. Your successes might be spiritual ones seen only by you and God, or you feel the year was filled with setbacks and failures, carefully review it again and I believe you’ll see some victories, whether large or small.” One thing I know for certain, our God has been at work through 2020 accomplishing His will on earth as He does in Heaven.

We all need encouragement as we jump into a new year. Isaiah 26:3 says: “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because He trusts in You.” That is a wonderful word of encouragement as we look back on 2022 and look forward to 2023. Verse 12 goes on to say: “Lord, You will establish peace for us, since You have also performed for us all our works.” Stanley further comments: ” That verse is a wake-up call! God is going to give me rest even though He was the One who’d done all the work. I am just grateful that He continues to partner with me in His Kingdom work.

For every achievement this past year, and for any that will be accomplished in 2023, God must get the credit, as He provided the strength, opportunity, skill or health to do it, as He worked in and through you. He alone deserves the glory. His Word affirms that He will not give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8). 

Keep this truth in mind as you move forward in 2023, we may want to take credit for our successes, but Scripture puts an end to such pride. We may want to get stuck in our failures but remember, God saved us not because He saw any goodness or potential in us, but because He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that would be holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1:4). And after salvation we still have nothing to boast of, because “It is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure’ (Philippians 2:13).

The purpose and joy of the Christian life isn’t to live for ourselves and our own exaltation, but for God and His glory. Glorifying the Lord isn’t merely something we sing about on Sundays; it encompasses the entirety of our lives. Next week I want to take a look at what this means.