It is true that at each year-end we look forward for the following year hoping that we are going to do better than we did current year. There is no better way than starting the year engaging with the Lord. King David said, “Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm37:5). These are the words of King David admonishing in a psalm. In everything that we do, we should commit to the Lord in 2022 just as we continuously did in 2021.
For those who say that they had it tough in 2021, they lost their loved ones due to any reason; I pray that you may find comfort in your heart. Always remember that, the Lord always has better plans for us. It is not the will of God that any of us may suffer the loss of our loved ones; however it happens because it’s natural that we will die gradually. When we are of God, although things like these happen, we always find comfort through His word.
I want to remind everyone reading this message that, everyone has their dark times. Job although he was righteous before the Lord he faced difficult times and they resulted in huge loss. Job in all this, he stood firm in the Lord. I know that this book has caused lot of Christians to believe that sufferings are part of the plan of the Lord in their Christian journey, but no, you are not like Job. Let me tell you why, Job said, “If there is a messenger for him, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show man His uprightness, then He is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom’” (Job 33:23-24).
Job realised that all that is happening to him is because he had no mediator for him. Actually he was telling the truth. At that time, Jesus, our now Mediator, He had not yet come down to die for mankind so that He could become officially our High Priest, Advocate and our Mediator. Therefore, the mediator would stand for him and repel that he should go through that excruciating pain he went through. Jesus came on earth and became our Mediator and our Ransom.
If Job lived in our times, he would have had someone standing up for him, to say, ‘Deliver him from going down the pit; My blood ransomed him.’ Therefore brethren, we must not accept bad things and be complacent about them suggesting that they are God’s will. When Jesus came to the earth, He healed sick people, He delivered people who were demon-possessed, and raised the dead. All these were part of the plan of the devil in the lives of the people. When God created mankind, He didn’t make them to live and die but men chose death over life.
However, I want to remind you that, in Jesus’ blood all our sins have been judicially taken care of. John said, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” (John 1:29). Believers, to see yourself as a sinner is judicially incorrect because your debt has been paid for. You cannot live like someone who is in debt while your debt has been paid, live free and because your debt has been paid for, it doesn’t mean you are given a chance to start on a clean slate trying now not to make the same mistake you did, no. This time around, you have been given a few trillion dollars so that you may never ever have to be in debt.
Therefore brethren, I submit to you anyone who knows that their sins have been forgiven past, present and future, doesn’t sin because he died to sin with Christ and was raised together with Him to live to God forever (read Romans 6:4-10). Christ died to sin once to live to God forever. If He died once, why should we often die to sin? We also died once to sin! We are to be baptised in water once, we get saved once and not everyday we feel like we have done terrible sin.
As long as we live in this world, we will also have sin because sin is connected to the flesh. In our spirit as believers we have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We are new creation just like what is written here: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). What is the ‘old things’? The ‘old things’ represents our sinful nature. When we become children of God, the old disappears and the new holy nature kicks in.
This reminds me of how Abraham was justified. I know that this may be a repetition of what was shared before. But, firstly, I want us to look at how he was justified and what happened after his justification. That’s where you fit in because the bible says, “Look to Abraham your father, and Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him” (Isaiah 51:2). This is a call to those who believe on the Lord Jesus to look to Abraham as a reference. We are not called to imitate him but to have respect for him.
The bible says, “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). This verse is going to be our Theme of the year in this blog, because after this event, Abraham received a justification from the Lord unconditionally. But we must understand that Abraham didn’t just believe, but He believed in the Lord because of something. What did he believe in? He believed on the Lord when the Lord used the stars to tell him how great God wanted to make him. When Abraham believed that, it was accounted for righteousness. Someone else would have thought that Abraham was supposed to be saved after sincerely surrendering his life to God.
Ladies and gentlemen, Abraham was saved (justified) when he acknowledged the plan of God. My dear reader, this coming year of 2022, acknowledge God’s great plans for you and not what your plans are. If you are reading this and you are not saved, consider this blog as those stars that our father Abraham looked at. If you would believe in the plan of God for your life in 2022, then you will be profusely blessed and justified. The Lord said, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and pray to Me, and I will listen to you” (Jeremiah 29:11-12).
Who is being addressed here? The righteous! This isn’t addressed to anyone but those who have been justified and called righteous. Threfore, I want you to take this personal that the Lord promises to hear you when you pray. The word listen in the Hebrew is for the word shâma meaning that God will pay attention to your prayer. Imagine this coming year, telling someone your problems, and that Person has the power to do something about your problems. Imagine telling Someone who won’t broadcast your problems but solve them quietly.
2022, is the year to reproof the works of the devil. In 2022 we are going to see the justified triumphing over the impossible. It’s going to be the year where we will face problems which the world won’t have the solutions for but we will always come out with the victory of the Lord. In 2022, we are going to commit our plans before the Lord, that is why I’m certain that we will conquer everything. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Everything good that is going to happen, it’s going to be through Christ.
Before I close, I want to remind you that after Abraham was judged as a righteous man, something bizarre happened. The bible says, “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, ‘See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her’” (Genesis 16:1-2). Sarah (then Sarai) was dwelling in the past which is 2021, and Abraham had received a revelation of what was going to happen in 2022, then Abraham seeing that what Sarah was saying which was visible, He somehow remembered the facts of their lives.
At this point, the reality is that God is going to give Abraham a child by Sarah. God didn’t tell Abraham about Hagar, but He had Sarah in mind. Of course Abraham wasn’t sure considering what was factual and visible before his sight. What Abraham did here was wrong but a quick reminder, he didn’t lose what was established in the previous chapter, his righteousness. Remember dear reader, when one sins, if he is a believer, they don’t lose God’s presence simply because, Jesus died for sins once. There is no sin that can be forgiven without the blood of Jesus. Some people teach that we must confess our sins regularly when we sin, guess what, that’s not in the scriptures. What is in the scriptures is that, “I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake” (1 John 2:12). What about 1 John 1 verse 9, I shared about that previously, please check my other messages in this blog. When John speaks to believers, he reminds us that our sins are forgiven, look at verse 1 on this very chapter: “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
I would like to suggest this to all believers who would read this that, it’s better to confess your sins to God and not to men because men will be hurt by what you will confess and begin to judge you based on your past. Imagine if someone you really trusted for example, your wife comes to you and say that she has been poisoning you many times but she failed killing you and now maybe she changed and began loving you. A year later she comes with this kind of confession, are you going to accept that it’s a genuine confession? You will resent her there and then and call for a family meeting to seek for divorce.
Now we have to be wise, but there are things which we may need to discuss with church leaders as to obtain the word of wisdom. Therefore, a quick reminder, when Abraham became righteous before the Lord, He was efficaciously forgiven unconditionally. You and I today are standing in the ground of righteousness where only the blood of Jesus put us by faith. We are standing on a favoured ground in the love of God just like how Jesus was and is, “...that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).
Now I conclude, Abraham is our reference for faith and righteousness, he had times where he doubted God’s existence but God didn’t turn his back during that moment but came near to protect him (read Genesis 20:1-11). In fact in that passage, verse 11 gets to me most. Abraham had walked with God for over 2 decades then when he said he feared that the fear of God is not in Gerar and resorted to lying. My dear reader, this message doesn’t suggest that we may be carefree, but it reminds us about how much God loves us and when we remember that we are of God, we may not sin.
My friends, actually 2022 is just about 12 hours away from now, but have no resolutions but put God ahead in your plans. We must have plans for this coming year but not resolutions and these plans must be committed to God. Throughout the year of 2022, consider yourself righteous no matter the problems and circumstances you are going to endure. God will be close to you always paying a close attention to your needs, just shout if you are sick, in need of a breakthrough or anything no matter how small or big, our Father in heaven is interested in helping us. If He did it for Abraham, He will do it for us. May you all have a blessed 2022, and the Lord lift up His face upon you and be gracious to you the entire year of 2022 as you will be JUSTIFIED.
Stay justified in good health by His grace
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