Restored

by Jacqui Crumrine, Associate Pastor

It is now 2019! One might expect a blog that is published at the beginning of a new year to be about setting goals, new beginnings and starting strong!  I want to encourage you today, instead of looking forward to things to come…to look back at what was. Look WAY back! All the way back to the book of Genesis.

In Genesis, we discover that God is the creator of all things. We discover that He designed us to be in relationship with Him, to walk closely with Him, and to know Him personally. We were designed to live without illness, sin, and strife. We were designed perfectly, male and female, and were to be in healthy relationship with each other. The earth was beautiful, balanced, and abundant – and we were to be good stewards of it. It was so perfect, it sounds almost like a fairy tale, and yet that was God’s plan for us.

We are all too familiar with the world that came to be…full of brokenness, sin, destruction, and death. We live in that world everyday! We are affected by it and it shapes us. However, when we encounter Christ, we are given an alternative. We are invited to be restored and made new. We are invited to be strong and courageous. We are invited to be a part of restoration in relationships and with the earth. Most importantly, we are invited back into a powerful, personal relationship with God!

So…I actually DO want to talk about goals on the first day of the new year, but when you set your goals, look WAY back to God’s original plan! Don’t just make goals to be a better you in a broken world. Make goals to
be restored and reconciled back to the God. Make goals that draw you closer to God. Make goals that transform your body inside and out. Make goals to change the world through generosity and justice. Make goals to have healthy relationships that reflect the relationship God wants with us. It’s great to make goals, but make the right ones based upon God’s plan for you.

‘So we have stopped evaluation others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! An all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ.’   2
Corinthians 5: 16-18

My challenge to you as we head in to 2019, is that you make God-honoring goals:

1. Take 10 Minutes to write down your goals
2. Spend a few days praying over those goals
3. Dive into the word of God and see if those goals
   reflect what God might have for you and this world.
4. Reassess your goals based upon what God is
   saying to you. 

Here’s to 2019, Covenant Grove!