Embracing Expectations

I have never been one to make New Year’s resolutions. I’m not against them.  In fact, they can be good and healthy things. It does not matter what you call them: resolutions, goals, ideas, etc.

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have some idea in our head of how the previous year has played out for us, at least in terms of good or bad…and also an innate curiosity of what the new year will hold.

We also have choices to make as we step into a new year/season of life:  What do we choose to leave behind, and what do we choose to take with us?

Believe me, I understand that sometimes it doesn’t seem like we actually have a choice in any of that.  So many things feel like they are completely out of our control. 

As followers of Jesus Christ, we know that endings and beginnings are just a natural part of life.  Some things will end, and new things will begin.  It’s a repeating cycle in our lives.

I think the most commonly known scripture related to these changes in our lives is found in Ecclesiastes.  Even people who don’t read the Bible at all have probably heard it, thanks to a guy in the sixties who wrote a song including these words.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV

1 There is a time for everything, 

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2   a time to be born and a time to die,    

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3     a time to kill and a time to heal,    

a time to tear down and a time to build,

4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,    

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,    

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

6     a time to search and a time to give up,    

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7     a time to tear and a time to mend,    

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8     a time to love and a time to hate,    

a time for war and a time for peace.

For Jesus followers, we have to look deeper than just the surface level of the words in a song.  When I looked at these verses tonight, there was a distinct direction that stood out to me, related to walking into a new year/season.

My life will have seasons, and every one of those seasons has a purpose that God will use for my good (because all things work together for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose).

There will be birth and death – new growth in my life, and a clearing away of the old things as God is pruning me.  God works in death just as He does in life.  There are times to plant, and times to uproot what was planted – now, I’m not a gardener….like, at all….plants die instantly when I come near….but spiritually we plant seeds as we live in obedience to the One who created us; in that same respect, there will be things in our lives that have to be uprooted – Matthew 15:13-14 says, “13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”  So, as we seek Him, He will uproot the things in us that were not planted by Him.  Whether we realize it or not, as believers, people are watching us.  Whether we are in a leadership position or not, people are watching us.  If we are in positions of spiritual leadership, God holds those to higher standards.  May we always seek His wisdom and discernment, so as to never be the blind leading the blind and causing ourselves and others to fall into a pit.  We must allow God to remove the things in our lives that He did not put there.

A time to kill and a time to heal – this isn’t Godly permission to murder…. this is where I have to crucify my flesh….kill, or let go of the things that are preventing the healing that needs to come.  For me, I know that is why God is leading in the things that will be written in this blog.  I have to let some things go for healing to continue.  A time to tear down and a time to build up – this is another way of saying the same thing, really.  I have to tear down the walls that I have built in my life and allow God to construct me in the way He has always intended.

A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance – The Bible also tells us that ‘weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.’  The weeping and mourning may FEEL like they will never end…. but they are just a season, and He is in that season, as well as the others.

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, - to me, this still signifies a need to seek His discernment in the things in my life that need to be held onto, as well as those that need to be let go.

A time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace – tearing and mending, there are things in my life that need to be completely destroyed and done away with, so that the time of mending can be most productive. 

Being silent versus speaking – I talk to God a lot about this….A LOT.  I don’t ever want to mishandle anything He gives me, and I don’t want to be disobedient to His calling for me.  To be silent when He says to speak is disobedience.  To speak when He says to be silent is disobedience.  May we all pray for wisdom to discern the difference.

Love and hate: God has done so much in my heart related to these words.  Especially Love.  And the funny thing about that, is that as He cultivates more of His Love in us, it allows the hate that shouldn’t be there to be replaced with more of His love…and before long, you might find that love overwhelms you and spills out. 

As we draw closer to His heart, our hearts learn to love what He loves and hate(despise) what He despises.

War and peace:  These days, I have noticed a lot of people have a lot of opinions on both of these words.  Much like love and hate, I think the world has twisted these two words a bit.  It “feels” so much more comfortable to worship the God of Peace, but no one really wants to worship, or even acknowledge the God of War. But He is both.  As it says, there is a time for both.  God could have sent David to make peace with Goliath, but that was not His Will for that situation.  There are MANY examples in the Bible of when there were wars where God moved as the God of War.  If we have so much trouble embracing that concept, then how will we react to the God of Judgment?  Will we be surprised and caught off guard because we thought that was just an Old Testament way of thinking and no longer applicable?

These are all just things that I have been pondering as I think of how my 2024 began versus how it is ending, and also how 2025 will begin.

I don’t have resolutions, but I do have expectations.  God has given many promises, and I want to walk into this new season with an expectation of the fulfilling of those promises.  Yes, I understand that God can do whatever He wants to do, whenever He wants to do it. 

Did 2024 look like what I thought it would?  Definitely not.   It started out with such an amazing time with the Lord that I can’t even properly describe.  I just didn’t know that He was preparing me for what was to come.  If I want to love Him with my WHOLE heart, I have to love Him during those amazing times, as well as the times of walking through the “valley of the shadow of death.” 

How should I enter 2025? 

With great expectation that God will continue to fulfill His promises, as I try to walk in obedience and continually allow Him to search my heart for anything in me that is hindering that walk.

Writing a post like this isn’t so difficult.  I love Jesus, and I could talk about Him all day and night.

The posts that are coming where there will be a releasing/letting go/uprooting of some really painful things, to make room for the healing that He wants to bring…..those will challenge everything in me, and will likely cause pain.  But I have to remind myself that He is in that, too.  He is in it ALL.

I pray we all walk into this new year with great expectations.

I love you, my friends.