Dear New Life Family,
Here we are again at the beginning of another year. As we look back over 2023, we have witnessed the faithfulness of God and how his grace has carried us through every trial and challenging circumstance. This gives us a sure hope that we are never alone and that the Holy Spirit will be with each of us as we step into a new year.
As Rashelle and I have been seeking God for his direction and guidance for 2024, we sense that God wants us to have a multi-directional approach to life & ministry in the coming year. He is inviting us to go deeper, lower, wider, and further this year.
- Deeper: Prayer is the foundation upon which the Christian life is built. Jesus is calling us closer to him individually & corporately through a renewed commitment to prayer. It is in sincerely and passionately seeking Him that our love for Him will be rekindled or set alight afresh.
- Lower: The Father is calling us into greater humility through service. The Spirit will enable each of us who are willing to build up and edify Jesus’ body. Good and consistent stewardship of our gifts will largely determine to what extent we are built up as a church in 2024.
- Wider: God is calling us to partner with the Holy Spirit in his ministry and work amongst us. There are many physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental needs the Holy Spirit wants to meet through the body of Christ because the Father desires his children to be whole and free.
- Further: We serve a God of extravagant generosity. Everything that we are going to receive so freely from God in 2024 needs to be shared freely with our community and the relationships we have outside the church. Jesus Christ must be proclaimed as Lord & Saviour to those who do not yet belong to him. This is our great privilege in the year ahead.
God wants to create within each one of us a heart that is wholly devoted to him, a heart that is kind towards the saints, and a heart that is for the lost encountering Jesus.
Lastly, may we offer the words of Elisabeth Elliot as an encouragement to you at the start of 2024: “New Year’s Day is a good time to fix one’s eyes on the only One who knows what the year is to hold.” We are looking forward to the new year with a renewed sense of God’s closeness. We invite you to enter this year with us, convinced that God will meet each of us as we seek to go deeper, lower, wider, and further.
Much Love,
Nico & Rashelle