2024! It happened! The world has been gifted with another year to discover the goodness of God and respond to the good news of the Gospel!
Every new year brings with it a sense of hope, potential, and opportunity. It’s also a time when it’s easy to find ourselves addressing the challenges that lie ahead, adopting what we perceive as a helpful outlook and response, one that is overwhelmingly positive. Positivity becomes like a Red Bull rush! Things can only get better!
Be positive?
This ‘Positivity’ sentiment often emerges in the prophetic outlook for some; this is ‘the year,’ the one you have been waiting for, the significant one – signs and wonders, miracles, healings, revival, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, wealth, and prosperity… the list goes on. These things are understandable; everyone would like to see improvement in the things they are engaged with or hope for, but the outcome over the year can be far different. It’s not totally unfounded, after all, the promise that “All things work together for the good of those who are called..” (Romans 8:28) but it’s not a promise based on positive thinking or outcome, but on truth. We might not know how we are blessed in a certain situation, but we can be sure that God, who delights in us and loves us profoundly and unconditionally, has the bigger picture in mind.
Not everything in life can be reset or fixed, but there is always possibility.
There is a way to witness these ‘positive speak’ things happen; it involves shifting our perspective from a shallow, fingers-crossed, ‘positivity-speak’ approach to one where we view the present and future through the dynamic lens of possibility (Mark 9:23). All things are possible for the one who believes. That may not mean they will happen, but it is more anchored in faith. Positive-speak, while sounding good, is not based on faith and can be misleading. Not everything in life can be reset or fixed, but there is always possibility. Looking back in history, we can see how God turns up in the most remarkable, unexpected, and often unprecedented ways.
Consider what God is saying
God has much to say to us, and we should guard our hearts from being flippant about prophetic words (Proverbs 4:23). Yes, strange things have been said in some quarters over the years, but being Berean in spirit and weighing the content of those prophetic words allows us room to be cautious, yet vulnerable and childlike, in our response to what God might be revealing (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21; Acts 17:11).
Engage one another with what God is doing.
I encourage you not yield to the casualness of positivity. Instead, engage one another with what God is doing. Our prayer for God to provide our daily bread extends beyond food, encompassing things that nourish and strengthen us in our journey. Even if things do not turn out as we hoped, we are still in the presence of opportunity. There was no positivity at work in the life of Joseph when he was stripped of his multicoloured garment; however, there was opportunity time and time again, until in the end, he was able to say to his brothers, ‘You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.’ (Genesis 50:20)
Say what you mean
Perhaps what we need is a change of grammar given that we might say one thing but mean another. We may over-hear someone say what we intended, but expressed with clarity and focus, and immediately we know that it’s what we would have said if we had the words. We do have them but need to recognise it. We can change, and so can the things we say.
It may be in our heart that we know what God has shown us; that if we turn to Him He will turn to us, that when we draw near to him, He will do the same for us, and that if we seek Him with all our hearts we will find Him. But what emerges is, ‘Yay! God!’ – meaningful to you, yet not helpful to others or grounded firmly in a well-thought through, faith-stirring manner that expresses the faith challenge of possibility.
One can find a lot of comfort in Psalm 23 however, Ps 23 doesn’t speak positive encouragement, but it does speak of possibility. That possibility (and fact) is that in your darkest time, wherever you are, whatever the mood music that chaos throws at you, God will be with you and bring you not just through, over, and into blessing but even into a better place.
Faith and possibility are clothed alike and dressed for battle.
