Happy New Year from us at Mission Cry to you! Here’s a message from the Executive Director, Rev Jason Woolford, on this upcoming year. Be blessed!
Happy New Year! Happy New Year!
Our rationale and argumentation for decisions we make are summed up by the word “logic”! As more celebrations of my birth day continue and an ever increasing desire to grow in my faith, I find that my logic has little to know value, without an understanding of who and what God expects of us!
While learning and growing it is important to take initiative, improvise, adapt and overcome in life. However, if we do not have a good foundation we can be misguided with that initiative. While serving in the Marine Corps, we would hear our leadership often say “good initiative, bad judgment”! I truly think that some people with their own logic are believing they have good initiative; but without a relationship and the presence of the Holy Spirit, are missing out on God’s plan due to the stain of their own logic, therefore having bad judgement!
During the new year we usually have some hurt and disappointment, compile with busyness and the bombardment of the “good life”, our logic can become stained. I have found “dying to ourselves”, pressing into God by spending time with Him in His Word, and through prayer and fasting, I can better understand God’s plan!
Every year I try to do some sort of fasting as the Bible speaks of, for spiritual and physical reasons. As my new year started off extremely busy, I had put fasting on the back burner. Then a text came from a friend reminding me to de-clutter by fasting. Then, having a day off of preaching, I visited a church where the pastor talked about fasting! While sitting in the chair and lunch approaching I could almost smell and taste the ribeye I was planning on eating, lathered in butter and salt! Then, I got focused and listened to the rest of the message. My friend, who is a leader of leaders and a great preacher, continued to preach on the importance of fasting and how it can fast forward things in our lives, as well as giving the physical benefits of fasting! Over the years, I’ve fasted and tried to live a fasted life, but was reminded that this will help me tune in more clearly and jump start my new year. This will allow me to spend more time with the Lord and better understand His plan!
In my reading this morning I was reading about Jesus Christ and how He shared with His disciples to abandon their own thoughts and desires and truly trust God. This brought me back to the message my friend was preaching. One of my personal takeaways was wanting to know God’s plan without the stain of my own logic. Our own logic can stain our thinking and then the decisions we make, or do not make in every area of our life.
Many years ago God put on my heart that when I got to the end of myself that He would continue to show me the rest of Himself. I have learned that we are really never to the end of ourselves, so daily we should live for the Lord. It’s there that God sees our faith in action and continues to show more of Himself and reveal more of Himself to us as we live a life of abandonment to Him! While I’m not saying that I have attained either one of these in the fullness, I can say that having a theme in your life of holiness and a personal commitment to Christ will allow you to hear more clearly from God!
Happy New Year!
Matthew 4:4
Rev. Jason Woolford