Happy New Year from The Boaz Project!
It may not seem possible, but another January has arrived, rolling out before us a new calendar full of (mostly) blank boxes to fill. I usually stare at those blankish pages awhile, both enjoying the briefly empty spaces and wondering what events will soon fill them.
“What challenges lie ahead?’ I wonder, “What blessings will God give?”
And each year, I find a prayer welling up in me, a hope that come December 31st of that new year I will not be the same person I am on January first. I thank the Lord that I can rest in Him despite the unknown obstacles ahead, and I trust Him that in the process, I will know Him in a new and deeper way.
Typically, I leave my new years’ resolutions at that…a prayer that God will do a new work in me. But this year, I read a Scripture that reminded me of the responsibility I have in that. It’s found at the opening of Romans chapter 12. Here it is in The Message paraphrase:
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him…fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it…God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
I love that God asks for our everyday life. He’s not asking for major, heroic feats. He’s asking us to be faithful in the mundane. He wants us to give him every single square on that new calendar, making each a gift of dedication, an opportunity for Him to do new things.
And He doesn’t ask us to change; He offers to change us. It’s the natural result of fixing our daily attention on Him: maturity.
So, as we enter this new year, let’s commit each day to Christ. We’re guaranteed to be changed!
In your prayers for The Boaz Project this month, please remember:
- Ask the Lord to keep our board and staff sensitive to the direction of the Holy Spirit, that we may, “Readily recognize what he wants from (us), and quickly respond to it…” (Rom. 12:2).
- Thank God for the year-end giving toward the Russian Christian Foster Home. You can get an almost real-time update on the progress toward utilizing the full $15,000 which will be donated as a 50% match on funds raised by visiting boazproject.org/update
- Also thank Him for the continued opportunities He has given the children of Agape Fellowship Home in Bangalore to witness for Him through dance and song.
- Continue to ask God to make resources available through the grant proposals we’ve submitted for the Russian Christian Foster Home.
- Thank God for the Christmas team which traveled to Vladimir, Russia to bring the true joy of Christmas to orphans. They were able to present each child in multiple orphanages a Christmas gift and presented the gospel message in a variety of ways. Pray with us that the Good News they brought will take root in each heart.