A brand new year! 2015, they are calling it. When we think about it, we realize that strictly speaking, it’s just another day. It’s not like the earth stops at midnight on the night of December 31st, resets, recalibrates, or recharges itself; it just keeps on moving around the sun. But it’s good to keep track of these things. Good that for us, the calendar starts over on January 1st. Good that God has given us days, months, and seasons, by which to take some kind of measure of our lives, and to, if necessary, take stock of things, reset, and recali-brate ourselves.
This is good for individuals and good for families and good for organizations. I think it’s good for our church family, too. Especially since we are at the starting point of a new phase in the life of Living Word Family Church, let us maximize this time of reflection and adjustment. Indeed, let us resolve to make the changes that need to be made in order to do all we’re called to do in these days.
To that end, I want to encourage you to join us as we begin the year with a three week fast. We’ll be talking about it in more detail on Wednesday nights, but the essential idea here is to lay aside something natural in pursuit of something supernatural. Most people choose to forego a particu-lar meal (supper) or avoid a certain category of food (sugar, meat, etc.). If you are planning to do more of a total fast (water or juice only), you may want to check with your doctor, especially if you’ve never done it before. But once the decision is made, resolve to stick to it. It will be hard; but we learn things about ourselves because of the difficulty; we find out, among other things, just how strong our desires are in comparison to our wills. But remember, this is above all a spiritual exercise. We are using this time to seek God for some things.
Allow God to speak to you about what He wants to speak to you about. But as far as what we, as a church, are fasting for, I’m calling this a Year of Direction. We want to be lead, as individuals and as a church, toward the goals God has for us. What needs changed? What needs abandoned? What needs revived? Let’s pray, all of us, for clarity of vision, for fresh fire, for direction, not only in the sense of an idea of where we are going, but in the sense of being directed, as actors in a play, by God. This isn’t a play, it’s not a game, but we all have important parts, nonetheless. Ephesians 4:16 says “… from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
So let’s do this thing together. Join us in seeking God’s direction even as we continue to pray for the lost and exiled to come and come back to the Father and to fellowship with the body. We’ll start the fast on Sunday, January 4, and break it together on Sunday, January 25, with a family meal. It’s new year. Let’s make it a great one!
