The New Year is upon us and 2012 is gone, not by apocalypse but in the course of time and now 2013 is here. What does this year hold for us? The number 13 is an interesting number. I liked this definition: 13 (thirteen) is a natural number after 12 and before 14. Really! Wow that was helpful. In reality that is as far as we need to go with it but many people find it unlucky and while others find it lucky. So many people are looking at this year from a couple of different lenses. Some will enter in fear and in trepidation while others will be excited thinking that good is in store for them all based on a number. Well since thirteen is simply a number, lets look at this coming year differently. Our church started going through a Covenant service last week. We focused on confession and making choices for God as we are to confess our sins and disobedience and then choose to follow God wholeheartedly, a covenant we will declare this coming Sunday in part 2 of our covenant service. We as a church are entering into a covenant with God that we will follow Him with heart, soul and mind. So as we enter this year we do not do so based on some number that follows 12 and comes before 14 but we do so based on the fact that Jesus came so that we might have life abundantly.
Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.” This is what 2013 has in store for us who follow wholeheartedly. We have this gift of freedom and all we have to do is take it. Jesus has so much for us. He guarantees we can enter this year and leave all junk behind. We do not have to drag it with us into this year. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” As John Wesley said in “JANUARY 1, 1785. — Whether this is the last or no, may it be the best year of my life.” We too can believe this to be the best year ever because we have the promises of the word of God to stand on and because we listen to, believe and follow Jesus Christ wholeheartedly.
