Turn Around

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near." -Matthew 3:1-2 (NIV)

Happy New Year! After taking a week or so off for Christmas, I'm back with what will hopefully be another year of God Morning God daily devotionals. When I began writing these devotionals last year, I had no idea just many people would read them.

I figured that I could probably talk my mother into reading them (if she only had a computer and internet access). I figured that I could get my wife to read them (especially if I threatened to write things about her from time to time). But I had no idea that you'd be reading.

Just how many people are reading? Well, my website received 19,875 visits last year, which averages 1,656 visits a month. Additionally, 205 people receive the devotionals directly to their email account each morning. Hardly a week goes by that I don't receive a visit, a note, or a call where someone tells me how blessed they are by these devotionals. One family even donated enough money to revamp the website and pay for the program that I use to email the devotionals each day. God is good.

This year's devotionals will focus only on New Testament readings. Each morning, I'll suggest reading a chapter of the New Testament. We'll work our way from Matthew to Revelation. Once we reach the end of Revelation, we'll return to the gospels and read them through a second time. On most days, the devotional that I write will come from the chapter suggested for reading that day. Sometimes, however, I might go in a completely different direction if the spirit leads.
 
Today, the words of John the Baptist ring in ours: "repent". The word that John uses here is the verb "metanoeo," which means to change one's mind or purpose. I've heard others say that "repent" means "to turn around" or "turn back to God". So perhaps it's a much needed word for us as we begin the new year.

Have we turned away from God? Was our primary purpose for 2012 to live and love as God lives and loves? Or was there some other purpose or focus to our lives? How might God be calling us to live differently in 2013?

Those that responded to John's preaching were the people of Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region along the Jordan - people who wanted to get turned around and headed in a new direction.

May God grant us the grace to turn around if the direction we've been headed has not been toward God. Happy New Year to you and your family!



You can sign up to receive these daily devotionals by email each morning by scrolling to the bottom of this page and entering your email into the yellowish box. Your email address will be safe with me. At any time, you can opt out of receiving the emails.

You may want to go back and read Matthew 1-2 as those were the chapters for the first two days of this year. Tomorrow's suggested reading is Matthew 4.