New Beginnings

Readings: Psalm 118:24 and Judges 2:8-15

Guiding text: Judges 24:15 “But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
I stand upon the cliff of a brand-new year. I have worries regarding the future provision for our family. I struggle with my own failures in faithfully serving Jesus. Yet these verses serve to not only remind me where the centre of my life needs to be but also the need of repentance and recommitment in my life to faithfully serving the LORD.
In verse 10 we are told that Israel, God’s people, had reached a time when a generation did not know the LORD and had even abandoned Him. They had no knowledge of what the LORD had done for them. How could they be in this situation. The answer appears to be that the previous generations failed to pass on such knowledge, they had not discipled the future generations and thus the knowledge faded.
We, as long time faithful followers of Jesus, can look out upon our world and bemoan a similar situation developing. Instead of blaming those generations perhaps we need to look in the mirror and frankly ask ourselves “have I been faithful in training the future generations in righteousness and faith?”.
We can all harken to a time when the activity in our church fellowships was vibrant and alive. The Sunday Schools were packed, the youth ministry was exploding, and the assembled congregation could be numbered in the hundreds (this is in Australia). It was a glorious time, yet many congregations are closing. Personally, there are two congregations, in which I fellowshipped for some years, that have demised. Am I to blame in some way?
In the western world we have lived our lives in relative ease. It has not been a struggle to live or engage in our church attendance. Has this ease led to our forgetting the need to evangelise, teach and raise up our future generations in the ways of the LORD?
Verse 11 and 12 could easily describe what we see in today’s western society.

What do we do?
I suggest we first need to repent, to humbly come before our LORD and declare that we have failed in these important tasks. We have remained silent in direct disobedience to Jesus command in Matthew 28:18-20.
Next, we need to re commit to engaging the present generations and sharing what it mans to be faithfully living in a relationship with the Living LORD Jesus Christ. Yes, there will be detractors and antagonists but nothing like that which is experienced by the persecuted church in many parts of the world. Jesus promised he would be with us always, till the end of the age, we need to keep that uppermost in our mind as we undertake the most important tasks as a follower of Jesus (Ps. 118:24)
Prayer
Father forgive me for losing sight of your presence in my life. Help me to see your presence during our turbulent lives. Strengthen me to maintain a persistent focus on you in the midst of discouraging noises in the world. In Jesus name I pray. Amen