Well, 2018 came to an end yesterday. It has certainly been a year I will not forget. The journey I have been on these past twelve months I would not have imagined with the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2018. I certainly would have never imagined that I would be pastoring a church and loving every second of it!
As I look into 2019 and reflect on 2018 I can see that God has everything under control even when it seems like one is on a roller coaster with many ups and downs. Some thoughts for myself as I enter 2019:
1. Keep Christ first! (First in my thought life, first in bringing up requests to Him in prayer, first in listening to His voice through His Word and through wise counsel around me). It is so easy to get busy (sometimes too busy) that I forget to take time to pray and take time to read the Bible, but I need the Daily Bread of God’s Word more than ever! I crave to know the Word of God and the God of the Word more and more.
2. Instead of complaining about people, pray for them. Too often someone might irritate me and while I might not say anything they are on my mind. My hope for 2019 is that anytime I want to complain or think negative about any person or circumstance that I would pray for them. They might not change, but God might change me and how I look at them. I hope that I could put Ephesians 4:31 to heart in word and action, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.”
3. To share the Good News of Jesus Christ with more people more often. That I will be more of an Acts 1:8 person and be a witness of what Christ has and is doing in my life. Jesus is the Only Way, the Only Truth, and the Only Life. In 2019 I want to share that, not just from the pulpit, but everywhere.
4. To continue to train men and women in the ministry and be a 2 Timothy 2:2 person. I am so thankful for the men and women who over the years have spoke the Word of Truth to me. So many were graduates from Davis College. Davis College was founded by John A. Davis who was trained under D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody was lead to the Lord by a Ed Kimball in a shoe store. Who was the person who impacted Ed Kimball’s life and lead him to the Lord? We don’t know, but we see that person’s impact through time all the way down to me. I want to be like that unknown person who lead Ed Kimball to the Lord so that “the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
2019 is almost here and no matter what the future may holds, I know the ONE who holds the future. His hands are the best ones to be in. “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”