David's Daily Devotion for January 2

January 2, 2023 - Good Morning! It’s Monday, January 2.

Our Daily Devotions have been on a two-week holiday break. Hope you and yours had a merry Christmas and a happy New Year! This morning we begin the fourth year of sending out these little thoughts. Thank you to all our email readers and to those who follow the devotions on Shelby County Today and Face Book. I appreciate each one of you and pray that our daily connections will be a blessing to you in 2023.

On January 2, 1962, four scruffy looking musicians arrived at a recording studio. They were there for an audition and were hoping to get their first record deal. The audition ended with no comment from the record company executive. Several weeks passed with no word. Finally, the group's manager called the studio and received a response from the executive, a response that has become the most infamous, short-sighted, wrong-headed evaluation in music history. He told the manager, "your boys will never make it in show business!"

The Beatles got their record deal later that year from another company, recorded a hit song, and never looked back. They became the most successful group in entertainment history, sold over 600 million records, and influenced every popular musician who came after them. The "boys" did ok in show business after all. And that record executive had to live the rest of his life with the knowledge that the future of music was playing in his studio . . . and he didn't recognize it.

In Isaiah 43:19, God says, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” As I read that familiar passage at the start of a new year, it is a reminder that God wants to do a new work in my life, in my ministry, in my church. But I am also reminded that I have a part to play as well. My part is to see what God is doing, perceive it, recognize it. And then move in the direction that He is going. I have to follow Him.

Thoughts for a new year.

Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org