As we have now passed from 2019 to 2020 I can’t help but look back. The Bible continually encourages us to remember and to reflect. Reflect on what God has done. In our house one of the ways we encourage sabbath, is with a saying we love to practice each week (we don’t always, but would like to). It goes like this…REMEMBER what God has done, REFLECT on what that means, what He has done helps us to ANTICIPATE what is to come and this leads to PRAISE.
It was 20 years ago that many of us were caught up in the unknown about Y2K, were you like us? Anyway, we are now 20 years past that nonsense and God is still seated on His throne and as Paul wrote to the Philippians that HE works in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). This morning I reflect on what He has done in the past 20 years. I have seen His hand working in so many people and situations around us. At the dawn of Y2K Mary and I had been married just 2 1/2 years, with no kids and had only begun thinking about Africa. Today, after living in Uganda for 13 years we are resettling in the U.S. with a new job (Vice President of Ministry Relations for New Hope Uganda Ministries), and we have THREE amazing kids who aren’t really kids anymore. We have seen countless lives changed by the gospel, healings, deaths, deliverances. We have experienced fear, excitement, jubilance and have praised God in numerous countries and continents. WOW! Look at what God has done.
In 2019 we had a family theme of “KNOWING HIM” based in Philippians 3:7-10. I am sure that at times our focus slipped from that goal, but it never left our hearts. He has continued to work in us for His pleasure. God has been faithful and we continue to say that without knowing Him, it is all vanity. Wherever we live, whatever job we are doing, whatever schools, sports, and friendships, it's all vanity without knowing Him and the power of His resurrection. He is the greatest treasure and knowing Him must be our desire.
Leaving 2019 behind and entering 2020 doesn’t mean leaving the focus of "knowing Him" behind; it's actually the fuel that leads us into anticipation of what is to come. Knowing Him and the work He is doing in us means knowing that we are created with a purpose…That purpose is to seek God and, as He assures us, to find Him (Acts 17). To know Him is to experience eternal life (John 17:3) and that means understanding our purpose all the more--an understanding that fuels the future and 2020. We now reset our focus; building on Knowing Him means that we understand that God works in us for His good pleasure. He was pleased to create us for Good works (Eph 2:10), that our good works, we as His workmanship, would represent Him in this broken world (2 Cor 5:20).
This year we want to take our knowledge of Him, as He works in us, and become expressions of His goodness. 2020 will be a year of being “ZEALOUS FOR GOOD WORKS AS GOD WORKS IN US”. As He works in us, we will be rich in good deeds. We will strive to represent Him to the best of our ability and by His grace all to the praise of His glory.
Join us, the Brittons, in 2020 to know Him more and His purpose for us all. Allowing Him to work in us, that we would be people zealous for good works, representing the Love that knows no bounds.
