With God, there is always something new! He is never finished with us! That’s one of the reasons serving Him is so exciting. God said: “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19).
This does not mean that God is indifferent to what we have done in the past. We may have achieved much good in former days! It is just that God has so much He wants to accomplish through our lives that He is always eager to move us to the next level in our divine service.
Our problem at times is that we either lose our enthusiasm for what God will do next in our lives or, our failures or lack of success lead us to believe our best days are behind us. The fact is that regardless of how badly we may have failed in the past, God is perfectly capable of doing a fresh new work in our lives.
My father served the Lord faithfully for many years in mission settings in western Canada. He experienced numerous accomplishments in starting churches and reaching people for Christ. Then at age 55, he wrote Experiencing God. He had no idea that such an enormous achievement would occur so late in his life. To this day, God continues to do new and fresh works in his life.
I have had the privilege of getting to know Nell Kerley of Statesville, NC. For years she was an average church member, faithfully attending church, while doing little personally to further God’s kingdom. One day she and her husband were in a horrific head-on collision that kept them in the hospital for six months while they recovered from numerable injuries and broken bones. Nell suffered so grievously from the accident that she cried out to God to take her home. In response, she clearly sensed God saying to her that He was not finished with her yet.
That set Nell on a journey. She realized that though she was an ordinary person, an extraordinary God wanted to use her life for His purposes. At age 66, she enrolled in an evangelism training program. At its close, she was taken on an evangelistic visit in which she shared her faith with someone. For the first time in her life, she led someone to faith in Christ. She was hooked! She began to record in a book every person she personally led to Christ and who was subsequently baptized in a local church. That was thirteen years ago. She is now 79. As of last week, she had 3,141 names in her book! She had led no one to faith in the first 66 years of her life. But God intended to do a new thing. In the next thirteen years, God has brought (at last count) 3,141 to faith through one ordinary woman. I asked her what happened. She replied, “God had more He wanted to do through my life.” That is also true of your life and mine.
As we come to the end of another year, it is great to celebrate what God did. But we ought also to enter the New Year with a sense of holy anticipation. What new thing do you sense God is preparing to do? Will He lead you into a new job? Will He guide you to earn a new degree or obtain an additional skill? Will He use your life in ways you never dreamed were possible? He just may! After all, He’s God! Nothing is impossible for Him!
