The Exceedingly Year

God doesn’t have frenemies.

I want you to read that again, so let me write it again. God doesn’t have frenemies. God’s power and sin don’t go together. Like oil and water, they literally cannot mix. There isn’t room for sin in our lives because you can’t simultaneously be a friend of God and an enemy as well.

My pastor said something today that blew my mind; he actually does this often. Keep in mind that he is an old country preacher who has never lived outside of the state of South Carolina. He said God is a two-handed God. He said you cannot hold on to your stuff or old stuff with one hand and try to catch what God is throwing at you with the other hand. All I could say is, “Wow, I need both hands open and ready to receive what God has for me.”

And at this stage in my life, I’m not foolish enough to think that it’s going to be all peaches, roses, and riches. I know that in the mix there will be tough conversations, tough lessons, and even some rebuke. Because all of those things are needed for my growth and betterment. I have come to the point that I don’t have to have things my way. I want to do life God’s way.

I know that God knows what’s best for me. My mind can’t even fathom the vastness of His love. So I’m willing to lay aside how I thought things would be, what I planned previously, and the results I wanted. Because not only is He a two-handed God, He is the God of exchange. He exchanged my crooked life for His abundant life. And now I must exchange my will for His. I can’t run ahead on my own trying to conjure up something when God has given me a hope and a future for an expected end. His expected end.

In the book of Psalms, chapter 54, God tells us through the psalmist that God defends us with His might. Come with great power, O God, and rescue me! Defend me with your might. (Psalm 54:1 NLT)

God is powerful. The thing is, God can’t defend sin. He couldn’t even look on His only begotten Son when sin was on Him.

As we close out the year, there are some habits and thought patterns that we simply need to leave behind. Multitasking what God has said concerning us is definitely one of them. I specifically said us there because I have to include me in it as well. Let’s let 2024 be the year we go all in and stop settling for just good enough. Let’s go for the pinnacle! We can shout the mountain high praises and we can live the mountain high life. It doesn’t have to be a fleeting moment that waxes cold and we long for it once we lose it. That can be our consistent story.

Blessings on blessings can be more than a hit gospel song; it can be the scripture made manifest in our lives. But if this is to be so, we must learn to let go. Let go of that false hope and self effort you’ve been holding on to and lean into real trust in God. Sometime you may have to buckle your seatbelts, close your eyes, and hold on for dear life. But when you arrive you’ll see it’s more than you ever imagined. This can be the Exceedingly Year. I don’t know about you but I like the sound of that.