New Year…New Land

New Year…New Land

Having gone through the trials and tribulations of 20/20 and coming out on the other side still standing, still happy, joyous and free is nothing short of a miracle. It is not by human hands this miracle has occurred, it is only by our Lord and Savior’s strength and favor that air fills our lungs, beauty fills our eyes and His Liberty keeps us free.

Today, the fourth day of the 2,021st year of our Lord, we find ourselves in a new year and the challenges, joys and beauty all await us. Will we cross over into a new land or will we continue down the same bumpy, pot-hole filled road we traveled in the past? Let’s take up new ground and allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, guide us and make us new.

Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said:
“Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.
Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.”
When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her. ~Ruth 1:14-18 NKJB

Conviction in the Lord is what is ask of each of us. Ruth shows determination, based on relationship with God. Ruth knew she could not revisit the past, that she should trudge forward into the unknown, where the Spirit was leading her. We should have this same conviction and determination about our relationship with our Father.

Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!”
And they answered him, “The Lord bless you!”
Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”
So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, “It is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.
And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house.”
Then Boaz said to Ruth, “You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women.
Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” ~Ruth 2:4-8 NKJB

Conviction like Daniel in the lions den, or conviction like Ruth in the field of wheat, God finds favor in both. We should stand up for Jesus Christ and our conviction in all that we do, all that we say and see how that works out. We’ve already tried countless other ways, why not exercise our faith? Why not seek the anointing of the Holy Spirit and follow that path in 2021?

Either the Gospel is the divine Word of God teaching us how to live and how to be a reflection of Him, or it’s nothing more than a historical account of events.