This woman shares my heart on what I expect from myself this New Year. Enjoy today's reading by a local Christian friend who taught me and others today to look a different way at New Year's resolutions.
"Take a trip back in time as a young Jewish boy, living in Jerusalem. Times are frightening. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon has besieged your city and conquered it. Many have been slain and the city has been ransacked, including the Temple of God. The people left behind live in fear, and rightly so. Nebuchadnezzar is vicious and brutal and his reign is one of terror. Then it happens. The soldiers come back. They go house to house and round up all the children and line them up in the street. You are among those children. You stand there, too afraid to move. Your parents stand off to the side wailing and begging for your return. A soldier knocks your crying mother to the ground and tells her to be silent. You stand trembling as Ashpenaz, master of the Babylonian eunuchs makes his way down the line. He studies each child and asks their lineage. He begins to separate some of the children out, while others are returned to their weeping parents. But you not so fortunate, for Ashpenaz is under orders “that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes; Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldean's.” (Daniel 1:3 & 4) You are one of the chosen.
Some of you might recognize this as a dramatic retelling of part of the 1st chapter of the book of Daniel . Most of you probably know some of Daniel's story. Who hasn't heard of Daniel in the lion's den? But did you ever wonder how Daniel, a Jew, ended up where he did? How he ended up as second in command to 2 foreign kings? Well, this is where his story started. He was one of the kids whom were kidnapped by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon to be groomed to stand before the king just to make him look good for having the best of the best of the best, sir. Most people are also unfamiliar with what comes next in Daniel's story so let me fill you in. He is taken to Babylon where he and the others that were also taken will be treated and educated like royalty.
'And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king” (Daniel 1:5)
You would think that was a good thing, right? But not for Daniel. Daniel had a problem. Being a Jew he was forbidden by Jewish law to eat anything that was not kosher. The kings food and wine were not kosher and were things forbidden by God in the law passed down through Moses. And Daniel had made a commitment to God.
“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” (Daniel 1:8)
I won't keep you hanging on to the end of your seat. Ashpenaz at first refused Daniel's request fearing the king would kill the both for going against his ways. But, God brought Daniel into favor with Ashpenaz and he agreed to give Daniel 10 days of eating fruits, vegetables, and water instead of the king's cuisine. At the end of the 10 days Daniel and his Jewish friends were visibly healthier than the kids who were eating the king's menu. The eunuchs were so pleased that they took the king's food away from the other kids and they put them all on the Jewish diet plan.
Every year at New Year these verses lay heavily on my heart. Here's why: Daniel purposed in his heart. Doesn't that sound like he made a resolution to you? At the time of year when we are all making our resolutions to eat better and get healthier etc., etc., I am reminded of Daniel who didn't just make a resolution that would be broken in 2 weeks, but “purposed in his heart”. I think there is a difference here. Resolutions are a frivolous thing to most of us. They say that most resolutions are broken within the first 2-4 weeks of the new year. Maybe we need to quit making “resolutions” and instead “purpose in our hearts”.
Here is the other things that hits me in the heart. We make resolutions to lose weight and pay off debt, and these are good things. “These things we ought to have done” as Jesus would say (read my post from last night and you will understand this better.) Our problem is that we leave the other, the “weightier matters of the law” UNDONE.
Can I challenge you, as I am myself, to dare to be a Daniel? This year, in 2014, can we, instead of making a resolution, can we purpose in our heart? And here is the most important part of all, purpose in your heart that, like Daniel, you will be brave enough to follow GOD'S WAYS and quit acting like the rest of the world. There is great benefit and great cost in doing so. For Daniel and his friends, it meant advancement, wealth, fame, the king's favor and high end government jobs. But it also came with a price, Daniel was thrown into a den of lions for his faith and his friends (yes the ones who refused the king's meat with him) Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace for refusing to do the latest dance craze called “when the music stops bow to the idol”. If you know those stories, you know that God came through for those boys in a mighty and miraculous way. If you don't know those stories, read the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. It is a fascinating read.
For me, 2014 is my year that I'm coming back to the heart of worship. I read the 2nd chapter of Revelation this morning with pen and notebook and highlighter in hand and allowed God to rend my heart. Hear what God is saying to me, AND TO YOU through words penned 2000 years ago but still ring out today:
“I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works...” (Revelation 2:2-5)
I remember from whence I am fallen. I have gotten so busy in this past few months that my relationship and alone time with God and His Word have been pushed aside. God never called us to be “busy” He calls us to be “fruitful”, and we can only bear fruit when we abide in Him."
By Lisa K.M. P.
(Used with permission.)
Just getting alone with God and His Word everyday is the purpose of my heart this new year, so I can speak to Him in prayer, serve Him better and He can speak to me through the love letters we call The Holy Bible. And I want to bring those I love that are not close to God to Him. Praying for a blessed New Year.
Beth Moore ebooks - Free ebook for the new year!
