The Year of Consecration
"Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But My people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.
Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror."
declares the LORD.
"My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."
-Jeremiah 2:11-13
In the Second Letter to the Corinthians Chapter 4 verse 7-10 we read that "we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our bodies." Our faithful Potter has purposed us to be vessels of righteousness. He uses our human frailty and weakness as opportunity to mold us and shape us into a worthy and fit vessel through which He can display His divine power. Every pressing trial and every perplexing circumstance we face are not meant for our destruction. God uses these challenging seasons of life to lead us into deeper knowledge of, and more intimate fellowship with, the One who suffered and bled and died on our behalf.
There is a strength the Lord wants to build in us - from the inside out - so He can fill us with more of Himself. But, not unlike the Israelites (Jeremiah 2), we often resist the challenges which will make us stronger in the end. We run away seeking after temporary, unhealthy alternatives that may satisfy our fleeting fleshly appetites, but which also ultimately suppress our spiritual hunger, rather than staying the course and allowing God to do a greater work within us and ultimately transforming us into a vessel through which He can accomplish His greater work in the world.
When we lose that vital connection to the Source - that Fountainhead of Life - our vessels become weak and flimsy and unable to hold anything of lasting value. In the end we have little to show for our selfish and vain pursuits. Tragically, everyone around us suffers as well. Instead of being a free-flowing channel of God's mercy and grace to a needy world, we have become an obstruction in the flow. And rather than cultivating an abiding relationship with our Husbandman and allowing His Holy Spirit to tend to the garden of our hearts to make us healthy and fruitful, our active disobedience or passive neglect has made us contributors to the dry, desert, wasteland of the world.
Our faithful Lord is in anguish over our sad state for He knows it should not be so. Year after year, month after month, day after day He stands at the door of our hearts knocking - longing for us to return to Him with whole-hearted devotion and an earnest, passionate desire for Him above all else. He is the Source of all our Supply. He is the Sustainer of our Life. He is the only One who can Satisfy His children, because it is His life that lives within us. Everything and everyone else will leave us broken and empty. He is the only one who can take the broken pieces and transform them into a vessel worthy of filling to the overflow with His abundant life.
In this Year of Consecration, let us forsake the enticements of this temporal world - they cannot satisfy - and let us resolve to devote our lives to seeking after the beauty and majesty of our Beloved Lord who, if we are willing, will pour more of His glorious life into us. May we live our lives set apart from the world and fully to the Lord. Let us consecrate our hearts to His and live a life of devotion, worship and service to the Lord. And let us give our Lord Jesus Christ all the praise and adoration He deserves. May our response this year bring Him the glory and honor that is due His Holy Name!
"Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.
Keep My decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy."
-Leviticus 20:7-8
Pray that the Lord would expand and purify the vessel of your heart
to make more room for Him. Utilize one of the prayer and fasting devotionals
on this website as your guide to a life of deeper, abiding intimacy with the Lord.
There is a new HOLY journey on the way!
May your journey this year bring you a fresh
Glimpse of His Glory
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