It's Time To Believe

I'm not great at keeping new year's resolutions.  I can count on one hand the number of times I've actually followed through for an entire year on something I resolved to do on or before January 1st. 

The one that stands out is when I made a resolution to read a book a week for an entire year.  I managed to keep that resolution somehow, and also managed to surpass my goal of 52 books by more than a few.  

What I learned from that exercise was that I was, in fact, capable of keeping resolutions and that the habit I formed by voraciously reading was one that carried over into a regular thing.  What I once thought a next-to-impossible goal eventually became part of my everyday life.  

You might be sitting there reading this devotion today and you have already given up all hope of making and then keeping all kinds of resolutions that you know you ought to make.  

You very well may have come to believe that there's no way you can change your direction or plot a different course for your life--one that gives you joy and fulfillment.  

And you might think there's not much that you can do to change the world around you into one that actually resembles a better one than the one we're in at the moment.  

What I want to bear witness to today is that any hope that you might have to create that change, become the person God wants you to be and make this world a better place is going to be found by your taking the first step:  You have to believe.  

Believe that you can do this.  Believe that God believes in you.  Believe that in Jesus you have a walking, talking, loving example of what God is like and what God wants for you.  And believe that because of Jesus you don't have to live the same old way, settling for the same old life.  

Walter Brueggeman puts it like this: 

We are now authorized to quit serving the old governance, old systems, old fears, old guilts, old debts, freed by the coming of the light into the land of contempt and distress.  

Put your old hangups and doubts on notice.  A new you... a new world is not only possible, but it's also bursting forth all around you.  Step into the newness of life that comes through the belief that God is still in the restoration business.  

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.