A New You… For A New Year

However, one reason a new year is wonderful is because many are more than glad to say goodbye to last year.

• Due to some deaths in their families

• Due to the death of good friends

• Due to loss of jobs

• Sickness

• Disappointments

• Due to the economy

They are ready to say goodbye to last year and they look forward to a new year.

But we have no gurantee next year will be any better than last year.

Illus: However, Robert Garrett lists several things that if they are to happen to us it may be a bad year to come.

For example…

• You see a “60 minutes” news team waiting in your office;

• Your birthday cake collapses under the weight of all the candles;

• You wake up and find that your waterbed broke, only to realize later that you have box-springs;

• Your income tax return check bounces;

• Your twin brother or sister forgets your birthday;

• The bird singing outside your window is a buzzard!

Now, if any or all of these things were to happen to any of us we may have a right to consider this next year a bit ominous (om·i·nous).

Seriously though, as many of us considered resolutions for the New Year, did you take the time to consider what the Lord would have you to do this New Year?

In recent years as a pastor I can remember when christians would come to me and say, “Pastor pray for me, I want to have a closer walk with the Lord!

But I have not heard that prayer request lately from christians.

• I sad to say, I don’t sense that longing among God’s people today who want more of God in their life. I wish I did!

• I don’t see people at the altar crying out to God with tears running down their cheeks crying out to God they want more of God in their life.

• I don’t hear Christians asking their friends to pray for them because they want more of God in their life.

It could be the reason for some we do not see this desire for a close relationship with the Lord is because some have never experience a close relationship with the Lord. You see, how can they desire for something they do not know anything about!!!

What I do see is a complacency where Christians today are very much content with their Christian life lacking a close walk with God.

WHEN CAN A PERSON HAVE A CLOSER WALK WITH GOD?

Illus: There is an ancient tale from India about a young man who was seeking to have a close walk with the Lord. He went to a wise old minister for help and asked, “How can I have a close walk with the Lord?”

The old minister took him to a nearby river. Out they waded into the deep water. Soon the water was up just under their chins.

Suddenly the old minister seized the young man by the neck and pushed him under the water. He held the young man down until he was flailing the water in desperation. Another minute and he may well have drowned. Up out of the water the two of them came.

The young man was coughing water from his lungs and still gasping for air.

• Reaching the bank he asked the old minister, indignantly, “What did that have to do with me wanting a close walk with God?”

• The old man asked him quietly, “While you were under the water, what did you want more than anything else?”

• The young man thought for a few seconds and then answered, “I wanted air. I wanted air more than anything else!”

• The old man replied, “When you want a close walk with God as much as you wanted air, you can have a close walk with God.”

This was basically what David said in Psalm 63:1. We read, “...O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land...”

Notice, he is not thirsting for the things of the world.

There are christians who have never experience close walk with the Lord because there every desire is what this world has to offer.

But notice the prayer from David, He said, “…MY SOUL THRISTETH FOR THEE…”

Thirst brings desperation!!!

Illus: Dr. Odell BelgerI was watching a cowboy movie the other night where a group of men in the desert found gold. But they lost their horses and their water when the indians atacked them. and one of the men said, I WOULD GIVE EVERY BIT OF THIS GOLD FOR ONE CANTEEN FULL OF WATER.