New Year's Resolutions
It's that time of year again.
The stroke of midnight now signifies a new year.
So it's time for New Year's ____?_____.
Yep, resolutions.
I, like you, have gone through the cycle of New Year's resolutions from making them with great idealism, to realizing their futility and inevitable failure, to merely thinking about things I'd like to change but not calling them resolutions, to, well, to not even bothering...
But this year I am making one resolution.
I want to eat rich foods and I want to eat until I am satisfied.
I want to do all that I can to get fat.
No stringy celery, dry rice cakes, and small plates of entrees for me.
Bring on the richest, sweetest, most tender foods and bring it in on platters!
I want things that melt in my mouth because they are so full of fat themselves- smooth like chocolate, buttery like pastries, and tender like marbleized beef. I do not want to walk around constantly hungry.
I even found a verse that describes what I want perfectly!
Isaiah 55:2 "Hearken diligently to me and eat that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness".
I want a fat soul.
No power-of-positive-thinking inspirational sayings for me. No bumper sticker theology, no religious rhetoric, not even warm fuzzy quotes with cute pictures or verse-a-day calenders will suffice.
Why would I be happy snacking on "Today is the first day of the rest of your life" when instead I have the invitation from God saying "Come and talk with me" (Psalms 27:8 ). I can commune about anything and everything at any time with Almighty God or I can try to motivate myself that today is a fresh start....
I think I'll respond "Lord, I am coming!" (Psalms 27:8)
I want to feast on the richness of God and of His Word, on His love and grace, His holiness and justice, His compassion and unfailing love. This is God, who is not some abstract idea, historical figure, or uncaring deity, but the One who seeks me and invites me to know Him.
I want to claim the verse in Jeremiah 31:14 where God says, "I will satiate the soul of the priest with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the Lord".
I want to say with the Psalmist, "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips". (Psalms 63:5)
This word fatness means richness, abundance and blessing.
Psalms 36:8 promises that "They shall be abundantly satisfied (filled up, to the brim, not wanting any more!) with the fatness (richness, blessing) of thy house (the place where God is) and you shall make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasure". Reminiscent isn't it of Psalms 23 where we're told that "He makes me lie down by still waters...he restores my soul." ?
So this is my resolution. To feast on the abundant richness of God, to listen to what He says, and to let my soul revel in it's increasing girth.
And "if out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45), it might not be such a bad resolution for all of us!
The stroke of midnight now signifies a new year.
So it's time for New Year's ____?_____.
Yep, resolutions.
I, like you, have gone through the cycle of New Year's resolutions from making them with great idealism, to realizing their futility and inevitable failure, to merely thinking about things I'd like to change but not calling them resolutions, to, well, to not even bothering...
But this year I am making one resolution.
I want to eat rich foods and I want to eat until I am satisfied.
I want to do all that I can to get fat.
No stringy celery, dry rice cakes, and small plates of entrees for me.
Bring on the richest, sweetest, most tender foods and bring it in on platters!
I want things that melt in my mouth because they are so full of fat themselves- smooth like chocolate, buttery like pastries, and tender like marbleized beef. I do not want to walk around constantly hungry.
I even found a verse that describes what I want perfectly!
Isaiah 55:2 "Hearken diligently to me and eat that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness".
I want a fat soul.
No power-of-positive-thinking inspirational sayings for me. No bumper sticker theology, no religious rhetoric, not even warm fuzzy quotes with cute pictures or verse-a-day calenders will suffice.
Why would I be happy snacking on "Today is the first day of the rest of your life" when instead I have the invitation from God saying "Come and talk with me" (Psalms 27:8 ). I can commune about anything and everything at any time with Almighty God or I can try to motivate myself that today is a fresh start....
I think I'll respond "Lord, I am coming!" (Psalms 27:8)
I want to feast on the richness of God and of His Word, on His love and grace, His holiness and justice, His compassion and unfailing love. This is God, who is not some abstract idea, historical figure, or uncaring deity, but the One who seeks me and invites me to know Him.
I want to claim the verse in Jeremiah 31:14 where God says, "I will satiate the soul of the priest with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the Lord".
I want to say with the Psalmist, "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips". (Psalms 63:5)
This word fatness means richness, abundance and blessing.
Psalms 36:8 promises that "They shall be abundantly satisfied (filled up, to the brim, not wanting any more!) with the fatness (richness, blessing) of thy house (the place where God is) and you shall make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasure". Reminiscent isn't it of Psalms 23 where we're told that "He makes me lie down by still waters...he restores my soul." ?
So this is my resolution. To feast on the abundant richness of God, to listen to what He says, and to let my soul revel in it's increasing girth.
And "if out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45), it might not be such a bad resolution for all of us!
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