As we are well on into 2021 now, it’s as good a time as any to think about what God is up to.
By that I mean in our individual lives, our families, in our Church community, our towns, our nation and in the world at large.
In normal years we tend to begin a new year with a sense of vigour, excitement and determination to step into new things. We would also perhaps aspire to shed some unhelpful habits, patterns or mindsets of the old year. That’s why January is normally a bumper month for gyms and slimming world! January sermons are often filled with hope and the joy of new starts.
This year, on the other hand, might feel a bit more like an anti-climax and as though the treacle we trod through in 2020 just got that little bit thicker. The gyms are all closed, our normal social networks are extremely limited and we may be feeling quite sad, lonely, or uncertain about the future.
Biblically speaking, however, new calendar years aren’t the only times we can experience a new start. God is a God who is at work all the time, and he may well be doing some amazing things in your life right now, even if you can’t recognise it.
Think about the buds, which are already on the trees. Although the landscapes around us may look colourless and a bit boring right at the moment, there is life absolutely everywhere. The time will soon come when all that’s been happening over the winter, mostly out of our sight, will come bursting into green shoots and blossom everywhere we look.
At times like these we are stretched, we have to pull on our own reserves, our resilience is tested, and it might feel tough. But don’t believe for a minute that God cannot be at work in you. As we say yes to Him, as we put on our new nature, we really can come to know our creator more and more, and we can become all the more like Him as His Spirit works in us.
Don’t limit Him. He us the God who knows all things, sees all things, created all things and sustains all things. And yet He was willing to step into our world, wrap Himself in human skin, and human frailty. He was willing to live sinless among us, demonstrate the Kingdom of God, heal the sick, raise the dead and feed the hungry. He came to show us the way to the Father and lay down His life to redeem the human heart, restore the human condition, and reconcile all things to Himself.
His plan for the world (and therefore our lives) is a very big one! We can be sure that He hasn’t dropped the ball. He hasn’t forgotten the things He has spoken over our lives, over our church community and over our towns.
He is faithful and He is able to accomplish what He started in us!