Devotional Index

January Devotional

New Year

Happy New Year! Have you made any resolutions? Many of us are endeavoring to pursue worthy goals with renewed effort. This is a month of beginnings. It is a refreshing experience to start over, or to start a new clean page. We can't help but think of salvation and how exhilarating it is to be washed from our sins in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have begun a new life in Him. We are cleansed from all sin. Freshly fallen snow looks so clean. The Bible says, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." (Isa. 1:18) With a little traffic, however, mankind can turn that clean snow into filthy slush. What an illustration of the effect of our sins! Christians today are much like the Israelites of Hosea's day, when God said, "My people are bent to backsliding from me." (Hos. 11:7) The remedy of that ancient day is still the same today: "Return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD; say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." (Hos. 14:1 & 2) New Year's Resolutions are often broken within the first few days or weeks. "The spirit ... is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matt. 26:41) The first part of that verse says, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." Though our flesh may be weak, we can be victorious by the Lord's grace and power. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Phil. 4:13) May the Lord Jesus Christ graciously enable you to keep those resolutions you have made.

Please join with all the members of Baptists for Life of Wisconsin in praying for God to bring about victories in the pro-life cause. Pray that another conservative Supreme Court Justice will be appointed this month. There would be rejoicing all over the United States if Roe v. Wade could be overturned this year. The terrible Supreme Court decision made in 1973, which has resulted in over 45 million conceived babies being aborted in the United States over the past 33 years, should not be accepted as a "super-precedence," but as a need for repentance. Jesus said, "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." (Luke 15:10) It takes humble and solemn soul-searching to come to repentance. May there be rejoicing in heaven today because we are constantly allowing the Spirit of God to convict us of sin, from which we repent and receive forgiveness and power to be overcomers. May we be growing in the Lord daily.

Speaking of new things in 2006, be praying for the start of a pregnancy center in the Fox Valley area. With God's blessing and provision, that may come to pass in Autumn. Praise the Lord! It's amazing what the Lord has done in the 15 years that Baptists for Life of Wisconsin has been ministering in Jesus' name. Please keep supporting this work with your prayers, contributions and efforts.

The Bible says, "For whosoever findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." (Prov. 8:35 & 36) "Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked." (Psalm 97:10)

May God bless you in 2006!

—Pastor Robert Johnson
Vice President, BFLW
President, Access Women's Center, Madison