You can begin the New Year however you choose to, you were made that way by a sovereign God to choose the path of your attitude and action that you desire. However the outcome is often intrinsically tied to your choices. Because every choice we make has an end result, good, bad, or indifferent. Therefore, choices are the hinges of our destiny (the choices we make, the choices that are made for us, or the choices we do not make).
So you can begin the New Year with a positive outlook or a pitiful outlook, it’s your choice. You can begin the New Year rehashing and reliving the miseries and the missed opportunities of the old year, or you can begin the New Year with wonderful anticipation of something better.
You can begin the New Year a pessimist, seeing the difficulty in every opportunity, or you can begin as an optimist, seeing an opportunity in every difficulty.
I offered to you on last week the first installment of these messages about how to begin the New Year. And on last week I invited you to consider Job’s life and Job’s choices. And out of all that he had endured, and out of all that befell him which was absolutely the zenith of pain, humiliation, and hurt. Job chose to Praise God!!
Even in the back drop of a canvas painted with chaos, crisis, and confusion, he literally gave Praise to God. In that awesome word found in Job 10:12, he says in the backdrop of all the darkness of his days, “You granted me life, favor, and the visitation of your spirit has preserved me”.
As I shared with you, Job’s theology was, Lord, I have lost much that was dear to me, I have experienced the depths of grief and pain, but I am going to praise you for life, favor, and your spirit. I am going to take the ashes of life and see if (through you) something can not come from that. That was the life application of Ms. Celie in the Color Purple as I told you last week. When she is breaking the ties from Mister’s house and going to start fresh with the life that she has, given the pain of her past.
His words to her was she was a poor, black, woman, etc. But her words were, I am all that, but I am still here!
And now I want to offer you a second consideration as you are beginning this New Year. I want to suggest that you do so in an attitude of Prayer! Not prayer at the level of the past year, but prayer at a deeper level, prayer at a more personal level, prayer at a more intentional level. I want to suggest that you begin the New Year as making prayer more habitual. As a matter of fact, I would suggest that you aim at becoming addicted to being more prayerful. To many times we are driven by crisis, circumstances, and the unexpected that increases our prayer lives. The trials and the testing’s have a way of raising our prayer thermostat!
It is this Prayer of Jabez that I offer you this morning. Bruce Wilkinson an evangelist made this prayer renowned to the world a few years ago in his book the prayer of Jabez. Not much is known about him, he does not have the prominence in the Old Testament as a Moses, Joshua, or David. He is not a Paul or a Peter, James or John of the New Testament. He literally was an obscure individual. His story is not even in a book that is interesting, Chronicles is a historical book of names of families of Israel and many of the names are atrocious to pronounce. But it’s an aspect of Jabez’s prayer that I want to lift up. In verse nine it tells us that he was more honorable than his brothers (man of virtue, vision).
So this text teaches us something about not only the man, but the mind and heart of this man Jabez. The bible does not say much about him, but the little that it does says a lots.
Jabez was a man that was marked by his integrity (piety). The verse says he was more honorable than his brothers. The scriptures does not identify the areas that he excelled in honor or the area they were dishonorable.
He was also marked by his injury (pain).
His name means pain, his mother named him the son of her pain or sorrow. So he has lived with this stigma and this label of being a pain, his life was a constant affront and reminder that he was pain.
But you know sometimes pain can be the platform of your blessings. Jabez has an antidote or a remedy for his pain. Because apparently he believed that God was a God who if you prayed about your pain, He would do something. God can bless you even if you are living with pain. When you bring your pain to God, He can reverse the order. Without God pain often becomes the landlord of your life, and you become the tenant. But God through your prayers can make you the landlord and pain becomes the tenant. And instead living in every room of your house, you designate the spaces where pain will reside. There maybe some pain that you just have to live with. But it will learn to live under your terms.
He was marked by a life of Intimacy (prayer).
The greatest blessings of God are not just being made bigger, but He can make you better. He can not just enlarge your territory, He can enlarge you inwardly. And that is what and where I want to labor and deposit in you today about prayer. The phrase bless me indeed can have a tantamount meaning to you this year. The greatest blessing that you need may not be that which is tangible, that which is touchable, that which is drivable, and livable, and wearable, not that which is in gold, silver, or currency! And I am not saying they are bad, but they’re not inherently the best blessings that God has.
Pray like Jabez, bless me indeed! In the Hebrew language, to ask God to bless you is asking God to do something supernatural, it’s asking God to rain down upon them what they could only get from Him! And to add in the Hebrew language this term indeed in our grammatical language is like placing five exclamation marks! (Define exclamation marks.)
Strong emotions!!
It is the mark of an ! I am sure that they would have put exclamation points behind the sentences when the women found the empty tomb! Or when the bread from on high fell in the wilderness! Or when the sea was divided!
This year ask God to Bless you Indeed!
I. Bless Me with Your Peace!
There is a peace that comes from Him that you can not obtain by your self. Jesus said My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives. His peace is predicated on a relationship with Him.
This peace is a wealth that is priceless and precious. A good night’s sleep and rest is not just the result of the material your pillows are made of and the brand of your mattress. There are those who sleep on priceless bedding but have no peace.
This peace comes from knowing Him who is the Prince of Peace who gives you peace that passes all understanding.
A. Peace of just knowing He is watching over me. He knows the steps we take, He knows the path we are pursuing, and He knows just how much we can bear.
B. Peace that says He is going to work it out for my good. Some way, some how, things are going to work out. I do not know how, or when, but I am just going to believe that things are going to work out.
That may be your greatest need this year to pray for peace!
Ask God to give you a peace over that thing that just keep showing up!
Ask God to give you peace over that person that just has a way of setting you off!
Ask God to give you peace over that struggle that keeps you on edge.
Ask God to give you peace to live with folks who act like folks on reality TV shows.
Sometimes it costs you something to have that peace, it costs you to become smaller, and it costs you to take the low road so that you can walk the high road.
It costs the candle to allow the wick to burn so there is light.
It costs the grape to be crushed so that the wine can be made!
It costs the wheat to be grind to have some corn.
It costs the coal to be consumed to produce heat!
Pray to bless Indeed to give you Peace!
II. Lord Bless me Indeed with your Presence!
The presence of God in no way guarantees that nothing negative will not happen, that nothing scary will not confront you, that nothing will invade your circle of life that may stress you and stretch.
A. The Presence of God just contains you!
B. The Presence of God comforts you!
1. Moses wanted God’s presence!
2. Joshua wanted God’s presence!
3. The presence of God leads us, lifts us, liberates us.
III. Lord Bless me Indeed With your Promises!
A. You promised that when I call You, You will hear and answer!
B. You promised that You will all be always be able!
Two stories!!!!
Turn up your prayer life! Get in the habit of talking to God!
Standing on the Promises
Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
through eternal ages let his praises ring;
glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
standing on the promises of God.
Refrain:
Standing, standing,
standing on the promises of Christ my Savior;
standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.
2. Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
by the living Word of God I shall prevail,
standing on the promises of God.
(Refrain)
3. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,
bound to him eternally by love’s strong cord,
overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword,
standing on the promises of God.
(Refrain)
4. Standing on the promises I cannot fall,
listening every moment to the Spirit’s call,
resting in my Savior as my all in all,
standing on the promises of God.
(Refrain)
