Probably about 5 years ago, Pam and I were challenged with the idea of God giving you a “word” for the new year.  Now, this isn’t a prophetic word, as in “this year God told me I should move to Colorado, start a new business, be wildly successful and earn a high six figure salary.” But more like a discipleship focus for the next 12 months. It’s an advance sense of an area God will be developing and refining you in your journey towards Christlikeness.  Knowing the area of life that God will be working allows you to partner with him in more active ways.

Pam immediately “got it.” Each December she sits with the Lord and listens for his still small voice and writes a word in the flyleaf of her Bible.  For example, in 2018 her word was “be still” (Exodus 14:19), 2019 was “joy” (Nehemiah 8:10) and 2020 was “peace” (Colossians 3:15).  For anyone who knows our family story, these words precisely parallel our discipleship edge for these years in an uncanny way.  And certainly no one knew a year ago that “peace” would be such a central and essential quality for 2020. But God did.  With racial unrest, a tumultuous election cycle and a world-wide pandemic in the cards, “peace” was indeed the spiritual trait most required for this past year.  As we often say, “you can’t make this stuff up.”

I’m a little slower to the punch on these sort of things.  But I do have a word for 2021 that I believe will characterize both my own personal life and the life of our church as we walk with God into this next year.  And that word is “RENEW.”

renew

1: to make like new, restore to freshness, vigor, or perfection; REVIVE

2: to begin again, continue an activity after an interruption; RESUME

3: to make extensive changes in; REBUILD

What does renewal look like in 2021?

First, I think we will experience revival, both personally and as a church.  It’s so easy to allow circumstances to dominate our lives and to allow lesser things to take the place of God.  Instead, I want us to focus on the goodness of God, drink deeply from the well of His grace and experience his love in new and fresh ways.  Dull, empty, half-hearted religiosity is so suffocating. I want to be REVIVED!

One of the greatest dangers to active love is complacency and apathy.  Like erosion to soil, the wind and rain of life beat down on our souls leeching out our love, joy and peace. Over time, we become depleted and empty.  It happens in marriages and happens with our relationship with God. The Bible calls it, losing our first love (Revelation 2:4).  Both churches and individuals can lose their passion for God and his kingdom and before you know it, their attention wanders to lesser things. We become unfocused or self-focused. We need to be renewed.  The Bible solution for complacency is to “Repent and do the things you did at first (v. 5).  In other words, begin again.  Continue activities that once were done but have now fallen by the wayside.  When I think of renewal both personally and as a church… I think of committing to corporate worship, prayer and praise.  I think about times when we were desperate to hear from heaven and were willing to do whatever Jesus asked and follow him wherever it might lead.  These are things we can RESUME.

Finally, personal and church-wide renewal involves change.  No one knows what church life or evangelism, or discipleship looks like on the other side of COVID. But I suspect it involves changing from comfortable patterns of life and ministry. Maybe it means committing to a small group or online Bible study.  Perhaps it means meeting with a mentor or counselor and honestly sharing what is happening in your life.  Everyone know that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  So, why are we so slow to mix it up and try something new?  I’m not one to change just for the sake of change. But if God is doing a new thing (Isaiah 43:19), we will miss it if we are stuck in our ways.  Worse yet, we might find ourselves standing against the very thing God is doing because we are more committed to our comfort and tradition than to actually following God in active relationship. In my life and in our church there’s a great need to take a look at our old ways of doing things and be willing to REBUILD.

In 2021, my word is RENEW.  What’s your word?   A year from now, I hope to look back and see that God has fulfilled his promise to me.  Like Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones, I believe God wants to renew us.  We can walk in the reality of the abundant life God has promised to us because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

Ezekiel 37: 1-14 The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. ² He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. ³ Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”

“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”

⁴ Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord!⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! ⁶ I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

⁷ So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. ⁸ Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.

⁹ Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”

¹⁰ So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.

¹¹ Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’ ¹² Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again … I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”