It’s a new year, a time when we refocus and make goals to sharpen a skill, get stronger, be happier, or feel healthier. Most of the time we make goals hoping to attain them by rearranging our schedule or buying a gym membership, buying a self help book, or just trying to be more positive.
Those are all great things to do, right? But those things alone won’t get us the results we set out to achieve.
To achieve health, we would actually have to go to the gym regularly and long term, using the membership we bought. Feeling happier would require that we practice gratitude daily through journaling and reframing our mindset. The steps to get the result we want are significantly different from the goal itself.
It’s the same way in our relationship with Jesus. This year, we want to draw closer to Jesus, hear God’s voice clearer, and experience a deeper comfort in the Holy Spirit.
John 10:10b (AMP)
I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].
This Scripture is what Jesus paid the ultimate price for us to experience. Let’s pursue that promise. Living intentionally with God in 2024 means making room for Him to do whatever He wants to do in and through us. In order to do that, we have to plan to make room for Him.
So how can we plan and create space to make room for Him? Here are four steps we can take to experience the life God has for us.
The first step is invitation. Inviting God into our lives honors Him and helps us recognize our complete dependence on Him. Some things that we invite into our lives or things that work their way in can harden our hearts. However, intentionally making room for God every day keeps our hearts soft and responsive.
Ezekiel 11:19 (Amp)
And I will give them one heart [a new heart] and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony [unnaturally hardened] heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh [sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God].
The next step is collaboration. We need to be in community with other believers in our local church. The Bible models this for us over and over again.
• Be at peace with one another Mark 9:50
• Love one another - (15 times)
• Honor one another Romans 12:16
• Live in harmony with one another… Romans 12:16
• Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you… Romans 12:16
• Serve one another in love. Galatians 5:13
• Carry each other’s burdens… Galatians 6:2
• Forgiving each other… Ephesians 4:32
• Encourage one another daily… Hebrews 3:13
All of these “one another” Scriptures are commands God gives us within collaboration of the local church.
The third step is renovation. Once we invite Him in and begin collaborating within the local church, God will begin to show us areas that He wants to transform.
This isn’t an overnight change. Much like a home renovation, it takes time, patience, and effort. Studying the Word is our perfect blueprint for these renovations.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (KJV)
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
When we make room for His Word, we make room for His presence. He shows us what we need to make room for, things like peace, forgiveness, rest, and gratitude.
The last step is expectation. When we are expecting something good and beautiful, then we are making room for something or someone! Paul describes it like this:
Romans 8:15 (Message)
This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?”
Ephesians 3:20-21(AMP)
20 Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us.
God can do anything! He has great expectations for us in 2024. He even wants to stir greater expectation in us for what He might do.
Let’s commit to making room for Him this year!
Want more?
You can check out this message from Pastor Michael Adams on YouTube at youtube.com/mylgc called Make Room or check it out on our app at LifeGate Church Villa Rica. Don’t forget about GROW, Connect, and NEXT!
Written by: Brittany Holbrook 12/31/23
Devotional for LifeGate Church
12-31-2023 Message by Pastor Michael Adams - Make Room