WHISPERS FROM HEAVEN
.
Nancy Bauer, Washington
IT’S TIME TO WRITE THE
FIRST PAGE
It was New Years
Eve during my pre-teen years. Family and friends were poised to blow horns,
bang on pans, shoot guns and light fire crackers. As the clock ticked down to
midnight and the New Year, I readied my pen with an excitement to start a new
page in a brand new diary. No New-Years-noise-makers for me! I just longed to
start a fresh year by filling that first blank page with new dreams, new
adventures and brand new hope.
We are now in
the new year of 2009. This New Year is still a clean, blank page to be written
on.
How will we fill
those pages? And how will we let God define this year of our lives?
As I wondered
about this year, I looked up the meaning of the number 9. It is the number of
finality, the year of completion, the year that God wants to complete what He
has started in us.
2Ti 1:6 For this reason I
remind you to keep alive the gift that God gave you.
Each of us is
born with a God-given purpose, gifts from God. They are uniquely created in you
by God. You know what these gifts are because deep inside it’s what you crave
and are drawn to. It’s your interests, your inner drive and an engrained
longing that draws you to certain things. Most of the time, these longings are
left undone and unfinished.
This is the
year that my spirit tells me that it’s time to finish what God started.
1Ti 4:14 Neglect not the
gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy..
Suppose God had
planned for you to be a great artist. Not just a run-of-the-mill drawer, but a
true creative painter, maybe another Thomas Kinkade. You’ve put off those art
classes for lack of money, lack of time, lack of
anyone-else-but-you-being-interested. You’ve shrugged off the godly-longing
stirred in your heart to paint that sunrise because there just wasn’t enough
time in a day. Life always tries to distract from what God wants.
But God says it
is the right time! The year 2009 is the year of finality, the year of
wholeness, the year of completion.
What better
time, but in 2009, to start finishing what God has started in you? That longing
to really “go for it”. Who but God has stirred this in your heart? He created
you with these gifts. Not only does He wants to complete them in you, but
according to the Bible, He wants you to share these gifts with others.
2 Peter 1:4 In this way he
has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of
these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and
may come to share the divine nature.
Could you stir
an unbeliever to really see God in your paintings? Could you revive the
compassion for God in a backslider with your poetry? Could you refresh and
renew your love for God as you paint, sing or even dance in the memories that
the Holy Spirit has revealed to you?
We all have
passions. It could be painting, writing songs, art, poetry, or even telephone
conversations. These passions are really gifts from God. Unused, they fall to
the wayside and are not blessing you or those around you. These gifts are to be
used for God’s glory and to bless you and others.
It’s time to
get started. It’s time to write the first page for 2009. God is setting His
people on fire. His gifts are His magnification in our lives. Now is the time
to use them for His glory and to bring in the harvest. Even these gifts are for
that purpose.
PAGE 1
January 1, 2009
Dear Diary,
Today I asked God
to fulfill His will in my life by perfecting His gifts in me. What adventures await me in this year? Stay
tuned for page 2……a continuing process and only a work that can be completed by
Jehovah Himself.
Yours in Christ,
Nancy Bauer
