The year is almost out. And while some may be eagerly anticipating 2011, I would challenge you to ask, ‘Am I done yet?’ We want to move forward into a new and better future. Amen to that. But are we READY to move forward? And how do we tell if we’re ready?
Certainly the new year will NOT bring lasting wonderful things to us if we are not right with God. So I think the end of the year is a time not so much for celebration as for somber reflection – am I walking rightly with Him? Have I grown spiritually this past year at all? Am I ready to move forward with God into all He has for me? Did I meet and know and grow with God this year? Henry Blackaby said, “If you are still missing out on His presence and power, you have not yet met God’s requirements (of you). Your repentance is not complete. When you experience God you will never be the same. If you are still the same, whatever you have done, you have not encountered God. At a time like this, you need to go to God and ask Him what you still need to do in repentance.” (brackets mine).
I think we would do well to read those last two sentences again. And then to ask ourselves, are we walking with God’s power? Is my life full of the experience of God? Do I see Him working through me in real power? And if not – perhaps we are not ready to move forward. Perhaps we need to take a long and somber look at the last year (and indeed, the threads of our lives) to see if there is unconfessed sin there. I think we need to take a long look at our families, and see if there is sin in our families that is not confessed. You say – ‘but that’s not my responsibility’. Isn’t it? Don’t you hold some responsibility for your own family? For your kids? And as those who truly know God, shouldn’t we take some spiritual authority over those in our families who don’t know Him? Can’t we - shouldn’t we also confess the sins of our fathers (those who came before us)?
We who know Christ so often plead and pray for revival and for spiritual awakening. And I’ve been wondering why couldn’t it happen here – right here in my family and right here in my church, right here in my community. Surely God desires more than we do to revive and strengthen us. Yet studying it, I see that revivals and spiritual awakenings happen in some places and at some times and not whenever they are called for. Given how few times they are called for (which is undoubtedly very few times indeed), it is doubly sad that they don’t seem to be as effective as they ought to be even when they do happen.
Then two things occurred to me. Firstly, that Scripturally, revivals and awakenings can only take place if there is true repentance. That much is obvious (and leads to the above comments), but perhaps less obvious is that that repentance has to be exemplified by the leaders, and include repentance of sins committed by previous leaders (their ‘fathers’). Witness Neh 1:6, Dan 9:8,16, etc. Now you may ask why people have to confess the sins of their fathers. And to be sure, the Lord holds each one for the guilt of their own self. That said, the reality of generational sin is evident in alcoholism, drug addition and all manner of things. So, when a person truly repents, they often have to repent of the sins of their fathers, for these are also their sins, and even if not literally, they are recognized tendencies. If this is so (and we know it to be so), and if we understand that each Christian has a spiritual ‘father’, do we not recognize that we also have to repent of the sins of our spiritual fathers? And aren’t our spiritual fathers in our churches those who have come before us in our churches?
You may say, “Yes, but they left – remember?”. Sure they did. And now we ought to repent for their leaving. I dare to say that we need to repent for them, and for their sins, as well as for those in our families who aren’t following Christ wholeheartedly. And for our community which is so obviously enthralled with the idols of money, entertainment and comfort.
Perhaps if we did so, and if God be merciful to us, we would experience real revival. A real spiritual awakening – seeing families reconciled, relationships restored and people saved. We would see our churches strengthened in both numbers and in solidarity, we would see what seemed impossible suddenly within grasp. We would know the power and the presence of God.
And THEN we would be ready to face the new year. May God have mercy on us all, everyone!
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