Well, what do you know, it's 2021. A new year. And even though here in the UK we are, by and large, still under lockdown, that renewed hope and faith for a better year is in every heart. We are all looking forward to the new year as a way of a restart, a new beginning, a fresh start, and very much, a better start.
And since it is the start of a new year, I decided to write a quick blog post to hopefully encourage you as you are walking into this new year. As I was going through my yearly Bible reading plan, I came across this verse in Isaiah 64:7 which really stood out for me.
And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have [a]consumed us because of our iniquities. (Isaiah 64:7 NKJV)
Now most of Isaiah is about the depravity the nation of Israel got themselves into. God is listing all the things that they were doing wrong, things such as idolatry, adultery, backsliding, and so on. And this particular verse we are looking at startts very much the same, by proclaiming that no no one was calling on the Name of the Lord.
But what stood out for me is the second part of that verse.
Who stirs himself up to take hold of You;
In other words “And there is no one… who stirs himself up to take hold of You [God]...”. Isn’t this a sad picture. There is no one who would stir himself up to take hold of God. Everyone is in complete apathy towards God.
I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be in that category of people. Imagine God looked at our lives, our Churches, our towns, and so on. Would He find people who are stirring themselves up to take hold of Him? Going into the new year, it is my intention to stir myself up to take hold of God. God has so many more things he wants to do in our lives, so many more things to show us, so many more things… but will we stir ourselves up?
Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. (1 Sam 30:6 NKJV)
If we look at King David, when his companions were so upset with him and wanted to stone him (1 Sam 30:6). The Bible says that David “strengthened [encouraged] himself in the Lord his God”. It does not say, Gos strengthened David, it says David strengthened himself in his God. You see, in the same way, many of us, including myself, have been praying, “oh God, stir us up”, when God is saying “oh, that my people would stir themselves up”.
We see in the psalms how King David stirs himself up, by commanding his soul to praise the Lord.
Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! (Psa 103:1 NKJV)
Sometimes our soul is not in the mood for blessing God. Sometimes our soul is having a bad day, a long day at the office. But we need to stir ourselves up to lay hold of God. We can see how David was stirring himself up to praise God, to seek Him, to lay hold of Him.
There are many people around the world that stir themselves up for different causes. Some people see a given injustice and they stir themselves up, and others, to address the injustice. Yet other people stir themselves to commit evil. And then there are people that stir themselves up to change their lifestyle, eat differently, live differently, act differently, and so on. All sorts of people, stirring themselves in all sorts of ways. So what about us?
My exhortation for all of us, including myself, let this be the year when we stir themselves up, with everything inside of us, to lay hold of God. Let's not wait for some big Apostle, Prophet or even for our pastor to do it for us. We sometimes wait for someone else to come and anoint us, appoint us, stroke us, pat us on the back, burp us, and so on. Let's not wait for someone else, but let us stir ourselves up to lay hold of God. Let God look at our lives and say “look at them, they are stirring themselves up to pursue me”.
So this year, let's stir ourselves up to take hold of God. Let's make this year count.
Happy New Year! Happy 2021!