We should invite God into our new year plans to stir up our fervor, a church said.
Beijing Gangwashi Church held a live Chinese New Year evangelistic meeting from February 15 to 17, with the themes on Caring Neighbors, Aaron's Blessings, and Making New Year's Plans.
Pastor Liu Lu preached how to plan for this new year from three angles during the last day's sermon: count grace, draw a new year's plan, and take the opportunity to dedicate themself.
Liu claimed that some people said that retrospection meant missing the past, but the more significant effect of recalling the past was to prepare for the future and make more substantial progress.
"When time flies, what is gradually settling down? It is God's grace, blessing, and His love," she added.
The first grace we received from God was His forgiveness of all our sins and redemption from Jesus' death, according to Psalm 103:2-5. God sent his only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to come to us. In despise of innocence, he was willing to be crucified on a cross for us sinners, blot out our transgressions with his blood. We could live because of his death.
The pastor stated that the second grace was the healing of diseases. Not only the physical conditions but, more importantly, God could heal the pain in our hearts. God also satisfied us with all kinds of good things as he created the heavens and the earth for us so that people could enjoy all sorts of delicacies.
The fourth grace was the Bible God gave us. "How could we learn His words and spiritual lesson if He hadn't given them to us? So it was also God's grace that we could read His terms in the Bible."
"When we can still see a ray of sunlight spilling into our window, this is God's grace. When we still have clothes to keep us warm and a room to live in, this is God's grace. Often we think we deserve a lot of things to which we are accustomed, but when thinking about it carefully, these are all God's grace and rewards he prepares for us," Liu said.
"The Bible says, 'We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.' Experiencing the coronavirus pandemic in the past year, we find something positive out of what seemed to be wrong, and God's dressed up a blessing in them. As long as people are willing to believe and obey, God's promise will not fail, and we can benefit from His beautiful guidance."
She continued, "In the new year, in order not to be lukewarm, we must invite God into the plans to re-invigorate our inner passion. We can't be lukewarm but strive to pursue God. A person who is neither hot nor cold and indifferent to spiritual matters is often in the most dangerous state. So we can invite God into our plan to let Him lead this year and walk in front of us."
"As long as you put God in the most crucial part of your life and give the best, purest, and most perfect things to Him, he is very pleased. God values the heart, which is sincerely relying on Him. To deny yourself is to accept Christ, to reject the past, and to dedicate yourself completely. We should grasp this opportunity to break and devote ourselves so that God would bless us."
The pastor urged, "Wherever your feet tread upon, at home, in the workplace, or on the road, as long as you have the heart to work for God and devote yourself completely, you are serving Him and people."
(The original article is published by Gospel Times.)
- Translated by Abigail Wu
