Your New Year Approach

One challenge of an airline pilot is what my son-in-law calls "the approach". The pilot's skills in flying, guiding, lining up the craft on the landing strip is felt by all who travel.  The the actual touchdown of the wheels on the runway need to be as smooth as possible.  As travelers we want that!  As pilots, they want to hit the mark every time. 

The force in which they have to come to a halting stop, with so many pounds of momentum is really beyond me.  I just appreciate their efforts in getting passengers on the ground safely. They know the best way to approach, the best way to go about the safe landings. And those safe landings bring us closer to adventure or to home. 

The new year is here, upon us in full force. Did you make any goals you had set for yourself?

Right around the corner from the start of this new year is opportunity. The chance to start over or again.   What do you need to get your life back on track?  What do you need to approach this new year to be successful in your goals?

For me it's just making each day God's brand new day. Remembering God's faithfulness and fullness at the start of it and then taking God tucked into the rest of my day's approach. 

God's approach for the end of my day starts with 

my letting Him control  the beginning of my day.

I don't know what is around my corners of the new year. Most days I can't see my runways. Only God can.  So with the first part of my day, I have to give him have access to my heart's instruments and gauges to let Him guide me in His best approach.

All you control freaks out there....can I get an Amen?  I can't do this once.  I have to daily surrender under the wheels of God's grace and favor. It's His grace and favor that has set my course, by His divine design.  He knows where this soul's plane is approaching, He's got this flight plan all lined out.

Do you hear His voice calling your approach?  
"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me" John 10:14

God wants to journey you through this year, through this day, through His changes, His best flight plans and diversions.  He wants to taxi you down his runway with His best approach to experience His best, in this new year.  His grace is enough for your journey. His favor rests on your heart. 

This journey of approaching home is just that. His journey for you.  This is your journey of faith that brings His change in the seasons, change through growth, and change of action of  heart.  Let God's approach be your day.  Let God approach your day.   

Let God...approach.

Let God bring you to His place of grace.  
His approach for the end of your day starts with 

letting Him control the beginning.    

The Better Way

Life is full of choices...every day, every hour.  Good, bad, right, wrong, mediocre and most excellent.  Decisions are made on a whim and with wisdom.  Consequences and blessings are felt with each.  So when it comes to applying this week's message, the truth helps us become laser-focused on the better.  We must learn to let go of the good to grab hold of the better.  God's better.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.  Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere: I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than well in the tents of the wicked. Psalm 84:1-2, 10

Better is this day with God.  How do you do that?

Living with God means to live with an ongoing, unending awareness of God's presence.  Living day by day and step by step under the submission of the Holy Spirit.  With each life circumstance...Jesus, I trust you.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Colossians 3:17

It's one thing to say it and quite another to do it.  It's takes practice and it takes faith.  One must believe in who God is to get started in this journey.   It takes a good habit of running to God first with everything instead of last or when we are out of options.

Better is getting to know God through prayer.  Prayer is really just talking to God about everything.  He knows your thoughts anyway.  He knows your heart.  Talk to Him.  He loves to hear your voice.

Be joyful always; pray continually. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17

Better is being obedient.  Jesus is the perfect example of obedience in that He went to the cross a sinless man to bear our sins.  There really is no comparison to that kind of pain, agony and torment.  So when God asks us to obey Him and we don't then we are not choosing God's best for our lives.  Our obedience is essential in God's better plan.  Delayed obedience is disobedience. 


For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:25 

Better is being desperate for God.  When you feed on the things of God you will want Him, and want to spend more time with him.  But when you love the things of this world you will be hungry for the things of this world.  Pray for desperation...for a hunger that only God can satisfy.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34:8


O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Psalm 63:1-3


In our difficult times, one lesson we can learn is a keen awareness of God's Spirit, His presence in every moment of our daily lives..  May His Spirit be the familiar that we cling to.  That will be a "better" way.


So how are you going to make your life better?  What does your time with God look like?