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January
2010
Dear
Friends in Christ:
Happy New Year
to all of you. It’s always an exciting time to look
ahead to a new year with plans and goals for increase
and success. I pray that 2010 will bring you many
blessings.
I want to share
a message with you that I believe will set a good
foundation for you as you begin this new year. I believe
the word of the Lord for us is to “Go again in 2010”.
Let me explain.
Elijah the
prophet was instructed by the Lord to approach Ahab king
of Israel with a message that rain was on the way (1
Kings 18:1). This was good news since at that time there
had been no rain for 3 years and 6 months (James 5:17).
In verse 43 of 1 Kings 18 Elijah then instructs his
servant to go look toward the sea for a sign of the
promised rain but the servant returns and says, “There
is nothing”.
Have you ever
been there? Maybe you’re there right now? You’ve been
believing for something but there is no sign of any
change. You’ve prayed and sought the Lord and done your
best to stay in faith but all you see is the same thing
as Elijah’s servant; nothing. It can be easy to get
discouraged and give up hope but let’s read the rest of
the verse. Elijah responds to the servant’s report with
two simple words; go again.
The Scripture
says this didn’t happen once or twice, or even three or
four times, but six times the servant looked for the
promised rain and returned with the same answer, “There
is nothing”. But once again, the seventh time, Elijah
said, “Go again”. 1 Kings 18:44 says that the seventh
time the servant saw a little cloud about the size of a
man’s hand and soon after the rain came.
I don’t think
there is something magical about the number seven but we
can learn from this story. Elijah kept expecting the
word of the Lord to come to pass. How long have you been
waiting for your miracle? How many times have you tried
to find a job, start a business, lose that weight,
conquer that habit, pay off that debt? How many times
have you prayed for your family to get saved or for that
almost forgotten dream to be fulfilled?
Let this be the
year when you choose to “Go Again”. Keep expecting, keep
believing, keep trusting in the word of the Lord. Pick
up those discarded dreams and aspirations and choose to
“Go Again”. Repent for losing heart and get back to
trusting the Lord to bring His promise to pass.
Psalm 105:19
reveals something to us of Joseph. Sold into slavery by
his own family, falsely accused and imprisoned,
forgotten by those who promised to help him, things
couldn’t have looked good for him. But verse 19 says,
“until the time that his word came to pass; the word of
the Lord tested him”. I don’t think God was testing him
but instead he was tested everyday whether to keep
believing the dreams God gave him or to give up hope and
forget about it. Waiting for the fulfillment of God’s
promise tested his resolve to either hold fast to his
faith and “go again” or to lose heart and let go of his
dreams.
We know how the
story ends; Joseph saw his dreams fulfilled and his
destiny accomplished but only because he chose to “go
again”. Let’s do the same. Let’s “Go Again” in 2010.
For His
Name,
John
Merola
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