TODAY’S DEVOTION (TEUSDAY 2ND JANUARY 2024)
“One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.” Psalm 27:4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 2ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Our hearts are full of thanksgiving to the LORD God this day. Some of us are still basking in the euphoria of God’s goodness to us; the goodness of allowing us step into another year.
One of the declarations of the moment, is the New Beginning declaration.
We discover that New beginnings are precious to any human being who values spiritual things. They are the best gifts from God to any soul that is giving up, or has erred and is in danger of being judged, condemned, and vanquished.
New beginning is also a gift for anyone who want to step into another dimension of God’s grace, glory, or program. If God has no new beginnings, man will not even exist. Creation itself would have disappeared.
If God had no second chances and new beginnings, none of us would have been alive. God does not just have second chances, He has second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and even a million chances in His love nest for all of us.
That is why He said we should do the same to others. Sadly, many will go to hell for not giving others a second chance after they pleaded for it.
God wants us to extend a second chance to all who need it, no matter the cost, especially if they return asking for it in the humility of the prodigal son, not the arrogance of Absalom.
No matter how glorious a destiny is, if God has no second and thirds and fourth and etc. chances for it, that destiny will never be fulfilled. The pathway of destiny can be bumpy a times. There are pit falls and all kinds of things that will require new beginnings from God for our divine destiny to be fulfilled.
Yes, God would have to create many new beginnings for that destiny to be fulfilled. He is never tired of giving us new beginnings, so long as we are making good use of it.
There is so much about new beginnings in God that we all need to understand.
To start with, time itself is a cluster of new beginnings, it all depends on one’s revelation knowledge. The pathway of greatness in God, is littered with fresh beginnings from God. The pathways of salvation and sanctification are littered with fresh beginnings from God.
NEW BEGINNINGS OR FRESH STARTS ARE SOMETHING WE CAN ALWAYS HAVE ON THIS SIDE OF ETERNITY.
The Bible is clear that such do not exist when we all die. There are no fresh beginnings in heaven. In other words, eternity has no new beginnings. That is why it is appointed unto man to die once, after that judgment.
The Psalmist said, “there is no repentance in the grave,” and that is because there are no new beginnings in eternity. If you die a sinner, you will never be given a second chance to repent and become a child of God in eternity. You will just be sent to hell.
Eternity has no new beginnings. It is time that has new beginnings. Like I said, “time is a cluster of new beginnings.” God created time that way so that we will always decide to start afresh anytime we want, or anytime the Spirit of God prompts us to do so.
That is why if for example, you slip back into a life of sin as a Christian. God will not send you to hell immediately. He will not even want you to die. He has no pleasure in the death of a sinner. He will rather prompt you to repent and start afresh with Him; He will bring the gift of new beginning to you.
When Satan made Adam to eat from the tree of sound Judgment, death was the result. Condemnation was the consequence. He thought that would be the end of Adam. He never knew there was a gift of New Beginning in God for Adam.
God had to push Adam into the realm of time, the realm of a cluster of new beginnings; by driving him away from the garden. That led to the coming of Jesus Christ, the second Adam. Today, the first Adam has experienced a re-birth. We are now in the image of the second Adam.
So, we can simply say, Satan destroyed the first Adam and now we have the second Adam.
Friend, Satan may have destroyed the first you last year, but there is a plan in God to produce the second you this year. 2024 is the year of the new you, a fresh start, a new beginning, the second you. Hallelujah!
The blessing of new beginning is one of the best blessings in God’s kingdom. It is something we should always look for whenever we are in dire situations. We should not look for how to end it all when things are not going in a favorable direction.
WE SHOULD LOOK FOR FRESH STARTS.
Our hearts should seek the LORD Jesus Christ, Our Resurrection and Life, to create opportunities for us to start afresh. The devil will use men and women around you to prevent that from happening, but do not be distracted.
Pursue your fresh start whenever and wherever you can find it.
Do not be held up in the prison of regrets, live in the freedom of repentance, looking for a fresh start with God, or with those you hurt, or with those guarding the opportunities you lost.
It will require humility, persistence, a sense of being nothing, and soberness on your part.
There should be no ego, or overestimation of yourself, pretense or hypocrisy. Yes, look for your fresh start or new beginning with the attitudes or attributes that are required for you to get what you are looking for.
People give up for not doing that. Others commit suicide because they do not do that. They do not look for fresh starts when things go bad with them. They just give up, and some who do, do not look for it with the right attitudes or attributes.
What is the message from the LORD today? The message is simple. There is a new you for the old you that Satan destroyed. Seek the LORD for it all through this year.
Time is a cluster of fresh beginnings. It is a cluster of fresh starts and new beginnings. So, seek it and do not give up!
We will never lack the opportunity to start afresh with God. There is always a fresh start in time created by Him for us, very beautiful ones. So, we should never give up when things go bad with us. We should just look for fresh starts; and in doing so, we should have the right attitudes.
So, if our business fails, our jobs come to an end, or our marriages fails, God will not bury us in the rubbles. Neither will He write us off, or condemn us to be destroyed forever by the consequences of our decisions.
PEOPLE AND DEVILS MAY DO THAT TO US BUT GOD WILL NOT.
Yes, the church, or men and women of God may do that to us, but God will not. The Bible is clear that He will not. He will only bring the gift of a fresh beginning to us. He will do that so that our destiny will not be stuck in the mire of our bad decisions.
All we have to do is to start seeking one thing, and that thing is, spending quality time with Jesus Christ, Our resurrection and life. That will change everything and the reason is clear.
If we spend quality time with Him, we will experience a re-birth. If we experience a re-birth, we will come out with a more glorious life than the one we lost. A major highlight in our devotional text says;
“One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”
Beholding His beauty and enquiring at His temple, will result in a re-birth in our lives; leading to the outbreak of the blessings of new beginnings.
Understand that Our God is not interested in your funeral but in your re-birth. People love funerals and will want you there. But God is not a man. He prefers your re-birth than your funeral.
Yes, He is not interested in the funeral of your marital life, but it’s re-birth. He is not interested in the funeral of your finances, but a re-birth. Whatever the enemy may have destroyed, God wants you to experience a re-birth in that area, and begin again.
You live in time, a cluster of fresh beginnings, so seek your re-birth not your funeral.
Do not allow Satan, friends, family, enemies, or whoever might be in your life to fix your heart in your funeral by amplifying what you did. Repent of your sins and fix your mind in your re-birth. Then pursue it.
That is the word of the LORD to us today!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.
Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.” Isaiah 42:8-9 NKJV