As we approach the New Year, the resolutions, the desire for change and the hope for better tomorrows….we must be very conscious of not entering into an agreement with our flesh for change. What does that mean? It means that we must not depend on our own strength or will to bring about change in us or our circumstances. Instead we must get alone with God, and through a prayer conversation we are to give him each detail that needs changing…one by one. As we go through our list, we must come into an agreement with the Spirit that it is not by might nor by our power, but by God’s Spirit that real and lasting change occurs.
What does your inventory list say?
I would love to hear from some of you.
What is it that you are being required to submit to God in 2009?
Together let’s trust our will over to the will of God. Let’s surrender all and see the sanctification of our life blossom before our very eyes!
Looking forward to hearing from you….
Heavenly Father,
I come to you this morning with the areas in my life that I know must be submitted to you. I am pondering how I have tried to change these in my own strength in the past with no lasting success. This year I come submitting my weakness to you and asking for the strength of your Holy Spirit to be at work in me. Change me Lord. Change Me. Less of Me and More of Thee.
Surrender my preoccupation with my weight and outward appearance.
The holidays are so bittersweet. So sweetly filled with family and friends and the many blessings that I am truly wholly grateful for: a Godly husband, a wonderful church full of dear friends, a nation where I am free to worship Jesus.
But everything on my “list” (which is lengthy!) seems to pale in comparison to this sometimes suffocating ache for children. I have the intellectual understanding that I am to submit to God’s will, God’s timing, knowing that His answer is not “No”, but “I have something BETTER in mind for you my daughter.” I know this and I believe it, but even as I read His Word, picturing myself cradled under the shadow of His wings, the deep dark aching hole threatens my Joy and its poisonous talons scratch away at my Peace.
The glowing faces of pregnant women, the laughter of the babies in their strollers, it all brings a weary smile to my face… praying God’s blessings on their lives and praying that God would help my will align with His while my heart fights to hope, fights to believe that God cares, fights to keep my face from betraying my selfish sadness.
So, in 2009 I submit my aching empty child-shaped hole in my heart, my unbelief, my will. I do not know how to not want my children. I am simply too weak in my own strength. It is the deepest desire of my soul to want what God wants, to will what God wills, to love what God loves. Change me Lord – less and less and less of me and so much more of you. Amen.