Author: Jojo Agot

It’s prayer and fasting time for Victory Christian Fellowship. No other time of the year is this activity so fitting than in the first week of January, first, because it’s a time when everyone’s actively mapping out life directions for the next twelve months, and second, because after all the festivities of Christmas and New Year, it is the perfect time to detox, slow down on eating and get back to normal daily routines. Not that fasting is the proper way to do it but, well, I just can’t help but associate these two in my head.

So this year, our prayer and fasting schedule is slated on January 7- 13. That’s less than 24 hours away. At sunrise tomorrow, Victory people will be refusing food for the next seven days. Sounds a bit scary to me but this time around, I resolve to brave the hunger pangs and join in the fasting. For the first time since I joined Victory in 2006, I’m gonna be part of this year’s grueling spiritual exercise.

Something about 2011 compels me to do it. Instead of passively waiting for things to happen, I intend to storm the heavens with prayer and audacity to ask God for clarity about so many things. I intend to humble myself and seek God’s face so I could take hold of the things that I have been harping about in my silent prayers. Vision, direction, calling, stuff that have kept me awake late into the night in the past year. I know this is my time to ask and get my answers.

“This year is the year of the favor of the Lord,” I heard Pastor Ferdie declare that in church last Sunday. It’s different for me though. I believe that this is the year of the vengeance of God for my life, vengeance on the enemy who stole a lot of good things from me in the past. The time has come for God to restore me to my rightful place in His presence and take me back to where He wanted me in the first place.

It doesn’t pay to say too much when you are mad enough to choke.
For the word that stings the deepest is the word that is never spoke,
Let the other fellow wrangle till the storm has blown away,
then he’ll do a heap of thinking about the things you didn’t say.

James Whitcomb Riley

I purposely didn’t write anything this New Year. The internet world is already bursting to the seams with all the top tens, resolutions, countdowns, look backs and other related blog posts that I’m quite sure I didn’t need to add any more noise to the chaos. Or maybe that’s just my excuse for slacking but, well, here’s a post about facing the new year with a confidence that you’ve never known before.

While reading my email this afternoon, I came across a newsletter that mentioned the phrase “eyes of faith” and my mind immediately raced back to this old story found in the book of 2 Kings 6: 15- 17. It was about the time when Israel was about to be annihilated by its enemy. Elisha’s servant got up early that morning only to be struck with the horrifying sight of a huge army surrounding them. They were trapped in a circle. There was no way out. Death was inevitable.

Allow me to quote the Bible so you can capture the feel of this gripping drama:

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.”

Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

As we face the new year, some of us may be feeling trapped by the bad decisions we made in the past. Others think there’s no way out. Just when you think you have no other options, take time to pray and look again with fresh eyes of faith. Look beyond the veil of the flesh. See through the fog of your unbelief and see how God is doing a lot of the fighting for you.

Measuring busy-ness is far easier than measuring business.

Busy-ness might feel good (like checking your email on Christmas weekend) but business means producing things of actual value. Often, the two are completely unrelated. 

[Seth Godin]