Hope for the New Year

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (Jn 15:15-16)

Yesterday I had a conversation with a few friends about the difficulty of moving from the knowing to the doing. The sad truth is I am pretty good at knowing things, especially biblical things, but not so good about executing on those things. And while the point of the conversation was for us to see that there is a difference between knowing and doing and that doing doesn't necessarily following knowing, I left feeling burdened and convicted.

Later, by God's grace, I ran across a quote from John Newton (read it here). Through these words of Newton, God set forth a couple of things that I trust will make a difference as I personally grapple with the knowing vs. doing gap in my own life. The first thing is this. I am not alone. We all are like Newton's example of someone who reads about sailing, but has never been on a ship. This is not a excuse, but it can provide us with humility, honesty and safety as we work together (as the church should) to move from knowing to doing.

The second thing Newton is quick to point out is that left to ourselves, when we see this gap in our own lives we will make "either a tame surrender or a shameful flight.". When I read these words, I could not have agreed more fully. I am ashamed to admit how many times the Holy Spirit's conviction does not prompt me to return to God but instead I cower in fear or I run in a vain attempt to hide from Him (Ps 139:7).

Thankfully, Newton did not leave the remedy to this situation in doubt. While our natural response will always be to crumble or to try to escape, we have someone who is on our side and he is interceding for us. As Newton says it:

But if He [Jesus] is the Captain of our salvation, if his eye is upon us, his arm stretched out around us, and his ear open to our cry, and if He has engaged to teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight, and to cover our heads in the day of battle, then we need not fear, though a host rise up against us; but, lifting up our banner in his name, let us go forth conquering and to conquer; Rom. 16:20.

So, our hope for the New Year is not in our resolutions, as good and sincere as they may be. And our hope is not in our ability to bridge the gap between knowing and doing, as great and beneficial as that would be. No, our hope for 2012, as it is in any year, is found in the One who laid down his life for his friends, the One who ransomed us and cleansed us and adopted us and is now empowering us to serve and glorify Him. Our hope always and forever is in Jesus.

I now send forth this post with a deep sense of its many defects; but with an earnest prayer that it may do some good. (JC Ryle)

To God Alone be the Glory