A New Year. A New Focus!

Hi! Everyone,

Hope you have had a great start to your new year. With so many people talking about making resolutions for the New Year I began thinking about why we do that. As a Christian it is my belief that only one resolution needs to be made for a lifetime and that is to be a disciple of Jesus. He may teach me new things from year to year or put my focus in a different place from year to year, but it is a lifetime process for me and I know I won’t be complete until I reach my eternal home.

This past couple weeks I have been thinking about heaven a lot. Maybe it is because we are approaching the one year anniversary of Dad Hansen’s home going. Maybe it is seeing how Mom Hansen has aged in the past year and the new needs that brings to our daily lives. Maybe it is thinking about my own parents aging and having some health issues that could call them to heaven soon. Maybe it is because of changes going on in me and in my life at this moment in time. Whatever it is the Lord knows. He is there to comfort me.

A goal I have set for this year is to once again read through the Bible with a focus on prayer. The Prayer Bible I purchased was just what I needed to help me be organized to reach this goal. Another tool is a gift I was given for Christmas. It is a 365 Daily Devotions on Prayer that are compiled from books that Andrew Murray wrote.

In the preface of this devotional it begins by saying A deeper spiritual life cannot grow without deeper daily devotion to God’s Word and to prayer. “Time alone with the Lord Jesus each day is indispensable,” Andrew Murray

Though Andrew Murray lived most of his life in the nineteenth century, Andrew Murray has much to say to Christians of the twenty-first century. His extensive writings encourage a fully committed, deeply personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

So I am saying this in love to each of you. If you aren’t spending time with the Lord in His word and in prayer daily then what you are really doing is trying to be a Christian in your own flesh and it won’t work. You need the communication of His word and prayer to be able to discern what the Lords will is for your life. It takes discipline! You all have decisions to make each day. I don't know what those decisions are, but for me it is what is the Lord calling me to do in this next stage of my life. I know he is working a cleansing in me because of the tears I am shedding. They just flow out of me without me being able to turn them off. He has allowed me to mourn each young adult as they have left our nest. Just yesterday it really hit me that my role of mom in a daily sense will end this coming August. I am mourning that deeply because for the past 18 years that has been my identity and it is a role I have loved! Now that role is changing and I’m not sure how or what the Lord will do in my life next, I just know I don’t want to just waste my life but I want to be able to continue teaching children and adults about Jesus. I want to leave a spiritual heritage behind when I go home to meet the Lord.

Someone just recently asked why Pastor Jon and I named our homeschool “Hansen Heritage Christian Academy” and the answer is because that is the spiritual heritage we want to leave behind when we meet the Lord. I was blessed to have many godly people in my life and in the church I grew up in and I am so thankful for what they modeled in front of me. I saw some of them go through hard times but I didn’t see there faith waiver. What a witness they were to me as a child and young adult and I know it is because of them that I made a commitment to be that type of witness to others.

So with all that being said. I just want you to know that I am praying for each of you that in 2009 the Lord will be your first priority. Don't allow empty things of no spiritual value fill up your time The Lord will handle all your needs as you commit to discipline yourself in His word and prayer. Find a time each day and commit that time to Jesus alone.

Praying that the Lord will be near to you as you draw near to Him

Deb