A New Year’s Blessing

The New Year is here. Today alternately marks the end of the holiday season and the beginning of a new calendar. Today we turn from reflecting on the past year and we look forward to what the new year brings. Traditionally, this is the day that our new year’s resolutions begin too—to lose that extra poundage we gained during the Christmas season, to make those phone calls and stay connected better, to get out of debt and to spend more time with family.

This year, rather then give you another strategy on how to keep your resolutions, I decided to simply write a blessing for you and yours for the new year. Scripture says that giving a blessing to others is part of what we are supposed to do as followers of Christ (1 Peter 3:9). Speaking a blessing over others is powerful because you are bringing your words into agreement with the One who is the Father of all blessing and life.

So here goes:

In this new year, may the Spirit of the Living God sustain and strengthen you. May His wisdom guide you with clarity in moments of confusion. May His hope encourage your in moments of despair. May His power gird you up when you are weak. May His light shine in every dark place and bring life to that which has long been dead.

I pray that the eyes of your heart, your spiritual eyes, would be opened to see His goodness and that as you reach out to Him, you would find Him. May the riches of His glory fill your heart and home. May you find His favor extended to you daily as you encounter the challenges of life.

May your children be blessed. I pray that they would excel among their peers and have favor with their teachers and administrators. I declare a new sensitivity in their hearts and minds to the words and ways of the Living God. I speak protection over them wherever they are—on the playground, in the classroom, on the school bus and at home.

I pray that you would have a new resolve to do that which is right and good; that your speech to others would be seasoned with grace and love; that your actions would flow from an open and giving heart; and that your steps would be ordered by the Lord.

May this year be a year of great blessing and great increase. I pray that in Him you would find the resource for all that is lacking and that it would not only fill you but that it would also supply the needs of those around you to the glory of our God and Father. Amen.

The pastors of Kings County would love to have the opportunity to teach you how to walk continually in the blessing of God. One of the greatest blessings you can give to your family this year is to start them off right and help them get under the umbrella of God’s blessing.

The Gift that No One Wants

As we enter the Christmas season much of our attention is focused on the gifts we will be giving to friends and family. Whether you are the type of person that awakes at an ungodly hour to crash the stores on the day after Thanksgiving or the person that waits until the last minute to fight for parking spaces and wait in line, all of us are concerned to find match up the right gift to the right person.

And each year we both give and receive a myriad of novelty gifts — the tie that blinks and sings, the chachki that was oh so carefully selected in the dollar aisle,, the dreaded and much lampooned fruitcake. No one wants these gifts. And yet we continue to give them because we feel obligated to go through the ritual even if the gifts have long ago ceased to be significant.

Do something different this year! Break the mold, save money, and instead write a card or a note. Take that five or ten dollars and give it to charity in the name of that person who would normally get a junk gift. Our church has helped people do this for the last couple of years and we have discovered that people LOVE to receive these types of gifts. You can find out more info on what we are doing this year at our website at kcfchurch.org.

But there is one gift that no one wants, but that we all need. This is a gift that communicates true love and concern but is one of the most difficult to give. It costs no money. It involves no trips to the mall. You don’t even have to wrestle with the scotch tape and wrapping paper.

It is the gift of honest conversation.

For a close friend or loved family member, an honest conversation can be the most difficult and yet the most rewarding gift that you can give. The truth is, honest conversations are uncomfortable. They usually involve talking about things that we would rather not bring up. It might involve talking about the person’s bad behavior or their inability to see the way their actions are damaging to others. It might mean telling a spouse the way you really feel and revealing a part of your heart that hasn’t been shared in a long time. For all of these reasons and more, honest conversations are usually avoided at all costs.

And yet, when we avoid having honest conversations with the people we love, we actually keep our relationships from growing deeper and more significant. We avoid talking straight with people because we are afraid of hurting their feelings and damaging our relationship with them. But when we do that we actually refuse to believe that a deeper relationship is possible.

What we forget is that honest conversations are the key to growth. We need each other to speak truth so that we can get better. The question is, do we love someone enough to tell them the truth? I believe if we all took time to have some serious conversations this Christmas, we might actually learn something and grow deeper.

The pastors in Kings County would love to get a chance to help you have an honest conversation with Father God. When is the last time you two talked? Grab your family and get in church this weekend, there’s no better time than the present.

Andrew Cromwell is the executive pastor at Koinonia Christian Fellowship in Hanford. E-mail him at andrew@kcfchurch.org.