Looking for Foundations

In the new year, we are tempted to want to start fresh.  New Year, New You! New big exciting goals. New diets, new clothes, new routines.  All the new.

The thing is that your soul doesn’t really give you a clean slate the minute the clock turns midnight.  Your circumstances are still the same. The things you have been working on have not magically fixed themselves at the stroke of the clock.  People talk about New Year like you become a perfect person on January 1, and your job is to keep it that way. Don’t mess it up!

The reality of things is that we are not new people after the New Year.  And while that can depress some, it really should be something to celebrate.  God has been consistently present in your life since the moment you were conceived.  He has been working a plan for salvation and sanctification in your life from the beginning of time.  We do not need a reset. We do not need a do over or a clean slate.  

Our stories are significant because of the One who is writing them.  They are beautiful because of all the twists and turns we take on the path towards redemption and sanctification.  If we are seeking to walk with the Lord, we are exactly where we need to be in this moment. Not that there aren’t things God is asking us to surrender or give up, because we will always be on the road to sanctification.  Never having fully arrived until Heaven. If we are not trying to walk with God, then we are not where he wants us to be, but he is Sovereign and will never let us walk too far away that He cannot pull us back.  

So no matter where we find ourselves in this new year, new decade even, we have come along way with God’s leading.  

In Ezra the other day, a concept stood out to me.  It says that the Israelites were rebuilding the temple after it was destroyed by the Babylonians and decades of oppression.  They were given a chance to start again. God had ordained a moment in history that had allow His people to rebuild what had been lost.  The Israelites finished the foundation and they kept on building. No time to quit.

Just kidding.  It says that they finished the foundation and stopped to give praise to the Lord.  Loud and exuberant praise!

My first thought was… but it’s just the foundation.  They aren’t even close to being done.

And there is my problem.  I have too many expectations.  To many criterias to offer praise.  I withhold until things turn out just how I want them to.  All pretty with a bow on top.  

But what the Israelites understood is that foundation, that new chance, was not the beginning of the story.  God has always been faithful. And they had not. Because of their rebellion the Beautiful original temple had been torn down by the enemy. Then they had endured nearly 70 years of exile and slavery. But when God told them he would restore them and would keep a remnant, He meant it.  

But as the foundation of the temple was finished they stopped and celebrated.  Why? Because God had fulfilled His promise to them. He had redeemed their mistakes and rebellion.  And because the foundation was the beginning of a beautiful temple that would once again be their meeting place with the Lord.  Even if it wasn’t done yet, they trusted that it would be. So they rejoiced. In the middle. The rest of the story didn’t go exactly as planned.  There was opposition and delays. But in the end, the temple was rebuilt. 

Going into the New Year, I do want to see change and growth.  But we don’t need to start over. I want to praise God when the foundation is built.  I want to trust that God will complete what He has started. I do not want to live in fear and doubt, waiting for the next bad thing to come along.

He is always faithful.  He does exactly what He says He will do.  So why wait to praise Him until you see the fulfillment?  When has He ever left anything unfinished? Why feel the need to start over because He hasn’t brought you to exactly where you would like to go?  He has been doing something. He has not ceased to be working in you. Just trust that it is all in process

I want to look around and recognize the foundations that God is laying.  The prayers He has already answered yes to. The ones He is in the process of fulfilling.  If I just walked around with my eyes up looking for a temple I would live my life disappointed for quite awhile.  But If i look around in expectation for the way that God is laying a foundation, I will have so much more worship and joy to offer HIm.  

In the new year, we are tempted to want to start fresh.  New Year, New You! But maybe we should look around for those foundations.  Those things that God is already doing. The progress He has already made. The ways that you have been growing and changing.  

This year instead of setting intentions for these big new plans and goals, God has been calling me to lean in.  Not to go running forward into the new decade. But to lean close to Him. To open my eyes to see. To honor some things that He has already been doing.  Some things that have been there all along. And to celebrate them. To worship God with them. To embrace what He has been doing. And to trust Him for what He will do.  

Because have no doubt that He is doing something.  In His perfect time. Remember that The Lord is patient that all might come to salvation.  That is His goal. That is the foundation being laid. And He never fails.