No New Year’s Resolutions
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2 Chronicles 7:12-18
12. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14. if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.'
Solomon spent 13 years building his palace and in chapter 12, dedicates it God. Solomon, son of David, spends all of chapter 6 praying for God’s blessing upon the temple that has just been completed (42 verses!) God’s response is direct and spelled out quite plainly: humble yourself before me, pray, seek God’s face, repent, keep God’s commandments. Blessings will flow upon God’s people then! Individually and collectively. Oh! Is that all?
Have you ever been humbled before God? It is not a pretty sight. He reaches down deep inside you, and pulls out all the pride and arrogance, all your sense of control and illusion of power, all your dreams and desires. And he casts them to the wind. And then he begins to fill you with his dreams and desires. It’s a painful process. Notice God tells Solomon He [God] chooses the place for himself. It’s not about Solomon or his work or his leadership--and he certainly cannot rely upon his father’s faith to save him! He must establish his own relationship with God. He must carve out his own life--honor a new covenant.
God has been humbling me throughout the past year. And I have put up an amazing fight against him! Oh, my gosh, how I have fought him. I continually tell him, “OK. I get it, you can stop now.” And he just keeps telling me, “Nope. Not yet.” He sees those deep places within me that I have held back from him and asks for them too. “No, God! Not that!” And he responds, “Oh, yes, and more. I want it all.” After all, I am his creation. How could I dare to withhold from him that which he created in the first place?!
I’ve made no “New Year Resolutions.” I only continue the resolution I made a long time ago. I will try very hard to give it all to God. All of it. I am only now beginning to understand and accept that I am in control of nothing. In charge of nothing. If my last breath is breathed today, what will I need to worry about tomorrow?
I have a strong suspicion that 2006 will be a year of giving up and offering up “control.” I get so tired sometimes of learning God’s lessons! But I imagine He long ago wearied of telling us the same thing year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation, century after century. All he asks for his patience and his mercy is that we humble ourselves, pray, seek his face, and turn from our wicked ways. From God’s perspective it really is a small thing He asks!
My prayer for you today and for this new year is that you humble yourself before God. And open yourself up to the plans and dreams he already has prepared for you.
Mary
