It’s that time of the year again. We are five days into the New Year and many of us are already struggling with those pesky resolutions.
In the face of imminent failure many of us turn to God and demand, “Okay God, it’s a New Year. I’ve done my part, made those resolutions, now it’s up to You. Let’s get this done.” Then, as if to prove just how hard we’ve worked, we whip out our laundry list of New Year’s demands, and basically tell God what we expect Him to do for us in the coming year.
But what if that’s not how it works? What if…and just hear me out…what if the responsibility for what happens in our life is not solely dependent on God’s actions, but ours?
Oh yes, God loves us. Yes. God is sovereign. Yes. God wants what is best for us. Yes. God will move heaven and earth to help us. But…if we think that we can sit back on the couch of eternity popping bon bons in our mouth while God scurries about doing our business for us then we have missed the entire meaning of what being a Christ follower is.
Psalm 37:4 says this…“Delight yourself in the Lord…”
This verse tells me that what happens in our life is not completely on God’s shoulders. We actually bear much of the burden ourselves. We are not to merely be bystanders in our lives while God does everything for us. That was never His plan.
How close do you want to be to God in 2020? Do you want a deeper relationship with Him?
Then you must seek Him with everything you are. To delight in someone means to experience great joy or pleasure in that person’s presence, and to do that you must know that person well. It can’t be a one-sided relationship.
To ‘delight yourself in the Lord” means that you learn everything you can about Him through prayer, reading His word, attending church, spending time with Him in worship. It’s not God’s job to draw closer to us because He already loves us with all that He is and all that He has. It’s up to us to draw closer to Him.
Maybe it’s time to stop waiting on God. Maybe, just maybe, He’s waiting on you.