The Walk That Makes New Years Resolutions All Possible

Today is the fourth and final blog in my series on New Years Resolutions. If you would like to read the the other three, please click on the links below. Today's thoughts may make more sense if you do.

Requirements For The New Year
Just, Justly, Justice- How Do We Act?
What Do You Love?

As I really think about the upcoming year, and I think about the previous year, I know I must make changes. It is healthy, and I would be very arrogant to think that I am so right in everything that I do, that no change is needed.

My favorite quote is:
"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten".
(author unknown)

If I want changes in my life but I do nothing differently, that is called insanity. How can possibly expect a change, simply based on a statement, "I want change."?
Let me give you a couple of examples:

I want to lose weight and be more healthy.
I still eat the same foods, in the same amounts, and do not exercise.
Can I expect to lose weight?

I want to keep my home more in order and be more organized.
I still continue to leave things lying around, and do not put things away, and push them into piles in the living room and on the counter.
Can I expect my home to be neat and orderly?

Now apply that thought process to the following:

I want to be the person God has created me to be, and to love Him and treat others the way He wants me to.
I believe that I am doing exactly that. I need nothing to be different. The problem is actually with others who just don't get it, and who just need to obey God more. Like me.
Can I REALLY expect that my relationships with people will change? Can I expect my walk with God to deepen?

The verse that I have been meditating on for the last few days tells me exactly what my issue is and what I need to change.

Micah 6:8

⁸ He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
   And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
   and to walk humbly with your God. 

 

When I shared my favorite quote from above, I had someone say to me, "But what if you like what you've got? There really is no need to change now is there?".

That statement really got me to thinking. There are many things I would never desire to change, such as;

being a wife to Larry. I like what I got.

being a mother. I like what I got.

being a granny. I like what I got.

Then it comes to my spiritual life. 

Such as;

being a child of God. I like what I got. 

But if I were to say: 

I am;

being a holy person. I like what I got.

being a godly woman. I like what I got.

being an effective light for the lost in the world. I like what I got.

so connected with God, everything is just like it should be. I like what I got.

Arrogance.
Self-righteousness.

I need to change my thought process about myself, if I want my behavior to change and my heart to change, and me to do what the Lord desires and requires of me.

to walk humbly with my God

 

If I want to deepen my walk with God, if I want to be in His will this year, if I want to do HIS WILL, I must know WHO HE is and who I am. 

He is God. I am not.

He is perfect and had NO need to change. I am not.

The answer for arrogance, is humility.

Humility does not mean lack of confidence. I know who I am in Christ.

Humility does mean I realize who I am in relation to God. And I know I will NEVER be equal with God. Even though I am a joint heir with Jesus, He is still God and I am not. 

The key to me being able

To act justly 
and 
to love mercy 
 is simply this:
He has shown me, O mortal that I am, what is good.
I need to see that God alone is the giver of all that is good. He is good with nothing bad found in Him.
 AND
I need to
walk humbly with my God.

It is much easier to be just and show mercy when I see myself in the correct light of Christ.

I need to see that I will always have room to change and grow in His grace and knowledge.

I need to desire that change. For me. 

Because of what He has done.

And that is good.

Now I know what God wants of me.

Now I know what I need to change to bring that about.

 

I need to surrender my will to HIS, so He can mold and make my heart more like His.

Happy New Year. Be resolved to be more of what He requires!

Chasing After Their Hearts,

Glenda Johnson

 

The Virgin

I have been in the field of medicine for many years. Prior to becoming a preacher, so was my husband. I will never forget the story he tells about the baby he delivered in the emergency room. The mother was 14 years old. She came in with severe abdominal pain. It did not take long for the staff to figure out  the diagnosis. She denied it. Claimed she was a virgin. She had never been with anyone. 
The staff shared with her that there had only been one woman in all history, and her name was Mary, that delivered a baby as a virgin.
And they were right. 

Very pure in heart.
Immanuel's momma.
Readily gave of her entire self, selflessly to be used by God for His purpose.
Gave birth to a child, whom she would watch die, to save her soul.
Indescribable joy was hers from being a humble servant.
No word from God will ever fail, is what she chose to believe. 

Matthew 1:22 
²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Luke 1:38-26
 ²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”  ²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰ But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

 ³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
 ³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.”
 ³⁸ “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

A frightened, God loving, young woman changed her entire life, and the history of the world with twelve words.
“I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled.”

I will ponder in my heart today, what would be different if I chose to live and believe those words for myself as Mary chose to do. Would my life, my family and the world around me be changed? I must believe that it would.

Chasing After Hearts,

Glenda Johnson

An Important Lesson From Cindy Lou Who

Every Who
Down in Who-ville
Liked Christmas a lot....
But the Grinch
Who lived just north of Who-ville
DID NOT!


Those words begin the well know work of Dr. Seuss "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". For me, it begins a story I have loved since childhood. I love the Grinch. I love the funny looking Whos. I love to watch the excitement over Christmas. And truth be told, the huge Christmas tree in the middle of Who-ville is my dream tree. *sigh*

Then a few years ago the Ron Howard version came to the big screen. And I fell in love all over again. You might be surprised as to why.
Jim Carrey does a fabulous Grinch.
The back story was really well written and answered a lot of unanswered questions.
Faith Hill's music has a powerful message.

But the reason I love this story is Cindy Lou Who.
I love her heart. She looks around and sees things that confuse her.
All the gift buying she finds "superfluous".

 She meets the Grinch. He doesn't quite fit all that has been said about him. He saves her life. She believes there is something good in him.

For those of you that have seen the movie, you know that Cindy spends all her time and effort to reach out to the Grinch. She believes he just misunderstood. He just needs to have some love shown to him. 

I love this. She sees someone that needs love.

She gives it. She gives it even though nothing was returned. She gives love even though the object of her love was seen as unlovable to everyone else. She expected that her love could make a difference in the Grinch's life.

And she was right. The Grinch's heart was changed. It grew. He learned to love. He learned to care. He learned to get rid of the hate and hard feelings he had been harboring for so long. 

That is my favorite part! Watching the Grinch change. Watching Cindy Lou Who look at the Grinch and say,   " Nobody should be alone on Christmas" and the Grinch realizing what it is was like for the first time to receive love. 

Cindy Lou expected a heart change. 

Are there those around you that you believe could never change? Their heart is just too hard? 

This Christmas season, as we gather around our manger scenes to rejoice over the birth of the Savior, remember why He came.

He came to change hearts. 

Be a Cindy Lou Who this year, and EXPECT to see hearts changed by the love of Christ!

Chasing After Hearts,

Glenda Johnson

What I Can Learn From "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

The Christmas season is officially here. I know because yesterday I watched "a Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. I always kick off the season that way.  I watched a 1955 black and white version. It was fabulous. Then as if that wasn't enough, I watched "A Muppet's Christmas Carol" on television as well. I know, I know. Hugh difference in the story telling between the two, but the same story and lesson for both.

As I watched Scrooge, and his sour, selfish ways, I saw some people I know. That's when I knew I was in trouble. When I see negative things about others, but fail to have a lesson taught to me, my heart is not in a good place. So I did an inventory of myself, in light of the three Christmas Spirits and Scrooge. This is what I found.

When I look at Christmas' of my past, I see some years where Jesus was NOT the focus. I see a child who got everything she asked for, but was never taught it wasn't about her. I was not told Christmas was truly about the Lord of the Universe.
As I grew older and met Jesus, married and started a family, my Christmas' of the past changed. Even though I taught my children all about the Lord of the Universe, I fell into the materialistic trap of making the day 90% about the kids and 10% about Jesus.
My heart changed and was convicted until the day really became all about loving people and pointing them to Jesus.

When I look at the Christmas of the present, I see a very large crowd. It gets bigger each year. We will have six children, two spouses, six grandchildren and one mother-in-love, besides my husband and myself on Christmas Day. We will worship, we will share a meal, we will fellowship, we will give gifts to one another. I am also looking beyond my family for someone who needs a special blessing. You see this year we will do something we call "the Twelve days of Christmas" for someone. For twelve days leading up to Christmas Eve, we will show up each day sing that day of the song and presenting a small gift of some kind. I choose to do this to make sure I keep the focus of Christmas on Jesus and the special gift of His life He chose to give.  It is easy to get wrapped up in our own "present" and not choose to be a gift to others. I have today to make a difference. Scrooge reminded me of that loud and clear.

Christmas Future? I really have no idea what next Christmas will hold. Except that I pray, I have set an example to my family of what it really should be about, and they choose to focus on Jesus. I don't even have a guarantee that there will be another Christmas.

I will choose to live in the present, forget about the mistakes of the past, and only concern myself with the One who holds my future.

The nice thing is, just like with Scrooge, everyday we have an opportunity to change our minds and do what is right. After all, that is the true story and meaning of Christmas. Jesus came so we could have a changed life in Him. He gives hope, the ability to live a new life and the assurance of eternity spent with Him.

You see, Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the Spirit of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future.

I will keep Chasing Their Hearts, even with jingle bells on!


Chasing After Their Hearts,
Glenda Johnson