If we are going to finish the year well, there is still more work yet to be done before we can close this chapter and move on.
If we have learned anything in 2020 it's where we have placed our hope, or better yet, where we have misplaced it. From pandemics to politics, toilet paper shortages to quarantine, we have been challenged in ways we have never experienced in our lifetime. Our limits have been pushed and our hope has been tested. It is safe to say we have learned a few things.
Our hope is not in this world—it has proven itself to fail.
I have thought a lot of the Israelites throughout the Old Testament and the tiring pattern they found themselves in over and over again. A pattern of rebellion and disobedience. They lacked patience, faith, and discipline.
"Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 1:26)
Exodus through Numbers we see the recounting of this up and down journey the Israelites took in their disobedience to God. They failed to trust God, rebelled against his plan, even after bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. They missed out on abundance because of their constant complaints and attitude toward God.
"Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers…” (Deuteronomy 1:35)
They made idols, begged for kings, complained about their circumstances, sought help in all the wrong places. All while God waited for them to see He was all they would ever need. Sounds like us, eerily familiar, this pattern they found themselves in and where we find ourselves in 2020.
When we look back on 2020 what will we take away? We can't exit the year without taking inventory of where we started and how far we have come. We have worked hard to make it to the end of the year, so hard in fact that we have literally counted down the days until it is over.
Will 2020 have changed us for the better?
If we are going to finish the year well, there is still more work yet to be done before we can close this chapter and move on.
Just like the Israelites we need to fix a few things, toss out our idols, stop worshipping our "kings," and put God back in His rightful place. There are small practical places we can begin as we do a little fixing up before the end of 2020.
Clear the clutter, fix your hope, your attitude, your priorities, and your heart on what matters the most.
1. You Need to Fix your hope.
We cannot spend one more day of this year putting our hope in anything but Christ. Our health, economy, government, toilet paper supply, will all crumble or waiver, but Christ is our sure thing.
Christ is the only one who is 100% guaranteed.
As the famous hymn writer Edward Mote wrote in 1834, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name." We can fully lean on Christ despite what this world has to throw our way, this world is not our home. These troubled days are only temporary, a vapor compared to eternity.
2. You Need to fix your attitude.
I think we could all do with an attitude adjustment. The best adjuster for our attitudes is gratitude. The Israelites complained often simply because they forgot to be grateful for the things that God was doing and had done in their lives.
Gratitude can fix the attitude.
I'm issuing a challenge for all who read this to take the Thirty in Thirty challenge:
For thirty days, write thirty things that you are thankful for every day.
At the end of the thirty days you will have written 900 things that you are thankful for.
You will have recounted the daily goodness of God in the small things. You will have looked back on a year that has felt hard and found the pockets of joy that God delivered.
3. You need to fix your priorities.
Quarantine may have been a pain in many ways but in others it was a gift. It slowed us down in a way that we never experience. It allowed togetherness in our homes and with our people in the rarest of ways. It removed every excuse of busy we could make.
Quarantine forced us to address the priorities in front of us, and we are better for it.
We cannot forget to take what we have learned this year and apply it. That includes taking a long look at our priorities and putting the main thing back in its place. The main things are God, our people, and then everything else. Yes, in that order.
4. You need to fix your heart.
The most important thing we can fix before we close out 2020 is our hearts—allowing God to do the work our hearts so desperately need. Clean the cobwebs and destroy the idols that have taken over God's place in our hearts. Our jobs that we put before our families, the phones that take precedence over real conversations. All the things that have become more important than prayer, time in our Bibles, or even going (or watching) church.
Our hearts need to be mended before we can make anything else right.
Our hearts also desperately need to be saturated in the words of God. We so much input and noise from social media and news that our hearts are bruised. The word of God is the healing balm our wounded hearts need. We can hear from the Father, we can learn deeply who He is and the sweet redemption He offers to our souls. We get a front row view of the truth that God is the faithful one, unchanging, and ever present in our daily struggles.
I am just as ready as you are to see 2020 go, but I want to finish this year strong. I want to close it out better than it started, with my eyes fixed on the King of Kings, the Savior of my life, and the hope for all my days.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/DisobeyArt
Michelle Rabon is helping women be disciples who make disciples. Michelle has her MDiv in Ministry to Women from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and is currently serving as Women’s Ministry Director in her local church. She is also the author of Holy Mess. When she is not writing or teaching, she enjoys reading, being close to the ocean, and drinking a lot of coffee. You can connect with Michelle at www.michellerabon.com
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