“The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.” Proverbs 13:4

A New Year’s Prayer

We are a people who love our sleep. Because we have access to electricity, we can stay awake in the night, lights blazing; then we sleep long into the morning to make up for it. We sleep right past devotional time spent with the Lord. Suddenly, it is time to be somewhere else, doing something else with someone else.

Resolutions to do better won’t cut it—not for long, anyway. Resolutions are too me-centered to be of lasting value. I’ve never met a person who kept a resolution for the rest of their life. We think we can “make up our mind” about a thing, attack it, pursue it, maintain it—yet soon enough comes a day we can’t, or don’t, or just plain won’t.

Most of us would agree that our greatest need for the new year is to spend more time in the Word of God, and more time in prayer and fellowship with Him. We resolve to get up earlier and go right to the Bible. But if resolve is the only reason we’re doing it—having a sense of it being the right thing to do—well, our resolve dissolves.

So often I have talked with others who verbalize a desire to know God more, to be really connected to Him, and to be spiritual powerhouses. If interpreted in a spiritual sense, our Scripture today says if you are lazy in spiritual things, you will be spiritually poor. Those who are diligent in their search for God will be rich in spiritual things. They will find Him. “…You will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heat and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).

What gets us out of bed early enough to spend time with Him day after day is not resolve, but passion. Zeal. White-hot desire to be with Him. A fresh vision of Who He is. A sense of awe and wonder about Him. An open-hearted, wide-awake awareness of His presence, His essence, His holiness.

Let’s stop nibbling at all the lesser things in life, so that we develop a hunger and thirst for Him. Let’s do whatever it takes to free ourselves up to seek hard after Him.

And let’s pray for His help as if our lives depended on it.

“Our Lord and our God, we need You more than we ever have before. We don’t always know how to seek You, but we ask You to show us. As the farmer puts out salt to create thirst in his animals, would you “salt” us so that we thirst for You. For those of us who haven’t felt passion for You in a long time—or ever—may this year mark the awakening of a deep desire for You. By Your Spirit, will You work Your righteousness in us. Create in us a clean heart. May we be satisfied with nothing less than dwelling with You in Your courts. Do what must be done to bring us to intimacy with You. We ask these things in Jesus’s Name. Amen.”