Resolutions

Jeremiah 29:11:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

So I decided to forego resolutions this year. It seems like every year I have basically the same ones and they seem to wane before the spring thaw comes so it seemed like a waste of time to make a resolution. However, I am going to try some new things this year.

On my blog, each day that I post, I am going to share Bible verse that is important to me. Well, in all honesty, they are all important to me, but every time I read the Bible I am amazed all over again by the truths that are just waiting there -- waiting to be read and to be used to make our lives better.

I am continually amazed by a God who loves us so much that he inspired all this Word for us to read and study and yet the vast majority of us tote our Bibles to and from church and leave them sitting in the car or on a shelf, never really cracking them open to gather up all the great stuff that's in there.

Imagine being chosen by God to be one of the people used to tell a story in the Bible. Can you really, truly imagine that? Out of the billions of people who have ever lived, can you imagine why God chose to use the people he did? Do you think they knew that God was going to use them as a story for people to read thousands of years later? Do you think that as Elizabeth was telling Mary how John lept in her womb upon seeing her and feeling the spirit of the child she was carrying that she stopped and thought, "Hmmmm.... I wonder if this will move Maria Latham 2000+ years from now?" I doubt it.

I wonder if when Hannah was praying for her child, Samuel, if she knew that some 2000 years later, I would have a wall hanging in my bathroom stating, "Hannah waited for God's perfect timing without knowing when it would come." Did she know that I would meditate on that thought every day as I got ready to leave the house or at night as I got ready for bed? Once again, I doubt it.

Do you know how your actions will measure out some 2000 years from now? What if you are the life that someone will meditate on? What if God is using you right now to help someone else? A huge burden and responsibility, isn't it? Well, know that I fully believe that he is using YOU right now to accomplish His goals. Is there anything you would want to change knowing that? I know there are things I would want to change. And, so I try. I can accomplish all things through Christ who strengthens me -- one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It comes to me at the most wonderful times, like right now. It comes from hiding His word in my heart that I might not sin against God. Hiding His word is something I don't do enough of, or well enough. Something I will try to be better at -- but not, I remind you, a resolution.

I hope each of you find peace in 2008 and that you will allow Him to use you in a way that if recorded and passed down some 2000 years from now that it will bring glory to Him. I hope, if you do make resolutions, that they last longer than mine do!

Psalm 127:3

Children are a gift from the Lord;

they are a reward from him.