My New Year Wish

The words I heard at the beginning of the year were not quite what I expected…

 

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

The clock slowly and steadily moved towards midnight.

A new year was dawning,

Another year of great positivity, hope, and promise.

My New Year wish,

Was that this year would be different.

 

The year began, and all was silent.

In the midst of getting ready for school and attending to other matters,

The Lord was quiet.

Amid my hurry and flurry,

I paused to ask myself,

How come God isn’t saying anything yet?

Doesn’t He know how much I am longing to hear His voice,

Confirming my New Year wish?

 

We all know how it goes.

The days become busier and busier,

As people go back to school and work,

Settling into the hustles and bustles of life.

I went along with the flow,

As I kept listening for that tiny voice,

The voice that would quietly say,

Yes, my child, I have granted your New Year wish.

 

But that was not to be.

One evening there was a sharp pain in my side,

And I knew it was time to listen.

And listen I did.

“Surrender yourself to me, so that I may use you.”

The words were ever so clear, but I refused to acknowledge them.

Because they were nothing like my New Year wish.

 

The words went back and forth in my mind,

‘Does surrender mean that I will get my New Year wish?’

If I surrender, will He reward me?

Why can’t I get a break from being used by God just this once?

Why can’t I get what I want?’

Oh, how I tried to run away from those words,

But they kept echoing in my mind.

“Surrender yourself to me, so that I may use you.”

 

A few days later, I stopped running.

I couldn’t run away any more,

Because running away from those words meant running away from the God I loved.

I stopped.

And listened again.

And suddenly, my New Year wish didn’t seem so important any more.

Because I wanted to stay close to the Lord,

And to do what He wanted me to do.

I remembered how much He had done for me in the past,

And how His love and presence were always with me.

I didn’t want to trade that for anything.

I surrendered to Him so that He could use me.

Any my New Year wish drifted away,

Forgotten.

 

 

Romans 12:2 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” (NLT)