New Year on the Horizon

No, I have not slipped off into the land of silence...it's just been a busy week. Having taken the week before Christmas off, this week has been payback at work! But I feel a little more settled in today. Today - December 31 - New Year's Eve! Can you believe 2008 is almost gone, and 2009 is on the horizon? What kind of year will it be? The way our economy is going, I'm sure there will be trials in '09. But like most every year, I'm sure it will be a mixed bag.

This morning in my short (but rich) devotion time, I read Psalms 24 and 25 (both of David). After being told in Psalm 24 that the Lord is in charge, Psalm 25 reminded me to trust in the Lord. What caught my eye, though, was the first line of Psalm 25, "To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul." I thought to myself, "Well, that sounds fine, but exactly how do you 'lift up your soul'?" See I want 2009 to be a year of what I call Re-purpose. I need to refocus on Jesus - have a Jesus-year as Beth Moore has put it in her blog. To do this, she has encouraged Bible verse memorization (or familiarity). Of which over 2,300 of us have signed up for! (Can you believe it?)

But as I looked at the study notes in my ESV Bible on Psalm 25's "lift up my soul" I saw the corresponding words - "long, desire, set the heart on, count on, direct my desire" - here's the one that caught my eye - "be greedy." I started thinking,now that's the way to refocus on Jesus...be greedy for Him. See, I understand greed. I think we all have a little greed in us. (In my opinion, that's what's gotten our country in this financial mess.) So if we turn our greed away from things and turn it toward Jesus, what a difference that would make!

I tend not to make New Year's Resolutions, since they are usually all broken by January 2! But this year, my desire is to Re-purpose my heart for a Jesus-year. How will I do it? Well, I'm sure by trial and error. I do plan to try to memorize (or at least focus on) scripture. But Psalm 25 has given me inspiration...I want to be greedy for Jesus! I want to desire Him above all else, set my heart on Him and long for Him. I'm sure I will fail many times, but just think - what if little by little my heart gets it! Oh, yeah, there's a new year on the horizon, and I pray it's going to be one full of Jesus!