Where Are You Going?

Just before Christmas my grand-daughter was showing me what she’d got in her Christmas cracker on the occasion of the Christmas dinner at her primary school. She proudly showed me her magnifying glass and explained how to use it. It was surprisingly effective since it was just orange plastic! Then she told me that her friend had got a compact. I was puzzled, not quite clear what she meant, so I asked her what it did. She explained it has a thing that goes round to tell you where to go. Ah, the light dawned, it was a compass!

It was a small conversation but somehow it’s remained with me. As we start this New Year, I wonder, have you got your magnifying glass and your compass? It seems to me that these are both essential as we start a new year. The adventure that is 2015 lies before us. But how will you see whether your ways do acknowledge Him, and will you know the direction to go?

It seems to me we need a spiritual magnifying glass and a spiritual compass for this coming year, or else we’ll be blind to the need for change, and lost about how to move forward when many paths present themselves. Praise God for the Holy Spirit, who can and will fulfil the roles of Counsellor and Guide, if we invite Him to do so.

New beginnings are exciting. I loved a new exercise book at school. It was a fresh start, with no mistakes, and no bad remarks about being late with the homework or careless in the execution of the problem. The start of the year is an obvious time to spiritually begin afresh and invite Holy Spirit to shine His magnifying light into your old ‘ways’: not just what you do but also what you think, your inner prejudices and your ungodly attitudes. Are they in line with the Jesus way? Are we acknowledging Him in all our ways? As we move more into His ways He promises to be our compass for this coming year, wherever it takes us geographically, emotionally or physically. We don’t know what lies ahead or what obstacles we may have to negotiate, but He does,and He’ll direct our path. Then we’ll know with certainty that, even in troubles and challenges, He’s in total control.

Prayer: Dear Father in Heaven, at the start of this New Year I thank You for Jesus, my Redeemer and Saviour, and I open myself again to Your Holy Spirit to be my magnifying glass and my compass for 2015. Thank You that You’re always ready for me to start on a clean page; learning from the past, being real about my present failings, but truly desiring to move forward into a new future, walking more in Your ways. Help me to remember this verse, and my New Year desire, when the business of my everyday life seems to shut You out, and I find myself reverting to my old ways and being my own path-finder. I pray this in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.