Prayer: Lord, teach me to seek and rely on You and Your provision in my life each day, week, month, and year. Amen
Scripture: Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way–just as we are–yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Heb. 4:14-16 NIV
Educators and students get two “New Years” to celebrate: the beginning of the school year and January 1st. The new school year is filled with new crayons, new notebooks and new goals. By January, those crayons are broken, the binders need replacing, and goals need revisiting. Time has a way of slipping by so quickly!
By now you know your students well and for some of you, your circumstances have changed, personally or professionally. I come to you today to ask, “What do you need?” Many New Year’s resolutions revolve around a desire to be better; healthier, thinner, richer, better educated, to try something new, improve relationships, etc… I am asking you to go deeper, be transparent and confess to yourself and God what you REALLY need help with right now. Better yet, ask God to show you where He wants to help you to conform more to the image of Christ. Do you need mercy and grace with pride, anger, organization, or attitude? Are you consistently late, unprepared, or grumpy? Do you take out the problems at home on your students and coworkers or take out the problems at school on your family? Do you make people walk on eggshells around you? We all have things that we are dealing with personally; we are all under a lot of stress from things we may or may not have shared with others. Life is hard; Satan is busy; there are so many responsibilities on our shoulders; how can we possibly manage to look our best, do our best and be our best?
Please do not feel any condemnation in these questions, the point is to know that you can change to be better, a better educator, friend, spouse, parent, and especially witness for Christ. God enables you every day to be all that He created you to be; you just have to be willing to ask for help. In God’s great love for you, you can safely ask Him to search you and to expose your heart and thoughts. He will work miracles in you if you ask Him to glorify Himself in your needs. Give Him access to every area of your life, and He will supply all that you need.
New Year’s resolutions are often made in a lackadaisical moment and broken within two weeks. They don’t really matter to us–we are even tempted to overlook the things we really need to change and pick an easier or more earthly goal that we approach halfheartedly at best. Today’s Scripture brings motivation and mercy. Approach God with confidence that you will receive what you need. Ask God to show you what needs some attention in your life and then ask Him to equip you to do so. Have confidence that He will provide and be by your side.
My prayer for you is that you would know that God’s mercy and strength are new every morning; that every day can be better, with new opportunities, new focus, new forgiveness, and supernatural mercy and grace.
Copyright Kathy Branzell. To connect with the author, email info@christianeducators.org
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