International (MNN) — We made it. 2021. A brand new year with new possibilities after one of the most difficult years in living memory.
But that doesn’t mean the challenges and lessons of 2020 get thrown by the wayside. Our problems didn’t vanish at midnight like a magical reset button. Even with the recent deployment of COVID-19 vaccines across the globe, we’re not out of the pandemic woods yet.
One of the biggest things 2020 taught us is that stuff and status don’t last. The old adage “you can’t take it with you” rings especially true after this past year.
(Photo courtesy of Tim Marshall via Unsplash)
When there were no parties to attend, no peers to impress, and no assurances for our future or finances or health, worldly pursuits lost their luster.
Andrew Scott, President and CEO of Operation Mobilization, says now more than ever, the world needs the Church to be the Church. True hope is found in Jesus, and there are still people who don’t know Him.
Scott says, “As we think of a new year and we think of the reality that the number of unreached in the world is growing by 60,000 every day, I have felt for some time that major change needs to happen in how we do what we do. I think COVID[-19] has accelerated those changes. It didn’t bring new weaknesses or create new weaknesses. It exposed old weaknesses.
“We need to be focusing as we step into 2021 on what God is doing in the world in the midst of this incredible suffering. What is He doing? What has He been doing that we haven’t been paying attention to?”
Instead of declaring 2021 as “your year,” we should instead dedicate this year — and every year — as God’s year.
Maybe this is the year you regularly ask your neighbors how you can pray for them…
Or mentor a struggling teen in your church…
Or show God’s tangible love to a single mom who’s worried about groceries.
Maybe this is the year you help your church start a food pantry…
Or give generously to Gospel missions reaching the unreached…
Or launch a new ministry!
(Photo courtesy of Danielle MacInnes via Unsplash)
Scott encourages believers in 2021 to “put everything on the table and say, ‘God, we are willing to change structures, we are willing to change models, methods, systems, whatever it is. We are willing to change it if it will see a greater movement of Jesus followers to these places, resulting in a greater number of people hearing and seeing the Gospel lived out.’”
What is God calling you to do this year for His Kingdom?
Header photo courtesy of Jude Beck via Unsplash.
