It's 2007. Few weeks back or was it last week that Yi Ping lao shi told us to think about our new year wish. For me, my wish was to dedicate my life this year to doing God's work Not letting things like school work stress me and take my time away from God but rather to use it as a medium. Anyway I was about to do my QT when Hwee Min chatted with me online. We talked about new year wishes and about trusting and relying on God this year. After she went offline, I read my QT and guess what... God just confirmed what we had said through my QT devotional. Haha Just read the devotional material below and you know what I mean.

"Our journey" January 1 devotional

Bible verse: Isaiah 43: 16-21

One thing I love about Chicago is the Chicago River. Back in the 1800s, however, a poorly designed sewage system polluted the river, which then flowed into Lake Michigan, thereby polluting the city's water supply and resulting in deadly outbreaks of cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery.

Something had to be done. Engineers got the idea that if they could reverse the flow of the river, the power and resources of Lake Michigan would flow into it. The fresh, clean water from the depths of the Great Lake would be channelled into the river, and would be a source of long-term satisfaction and strength to the city.

In 1900, they successfully reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that it is the only river in the Great Lakes system that receives its water from the lake. Because of this, the river is clean, strong, and never lacks a source - unline tributaries that draw their water from lesser and often unreliable sources, such as rainfall, snow melt, and underground springs.

Some of us are like the Chicago River before its flow was reversed. We have never permitted God's Spirit to restructure our passions nor allowed ourselves to draw our satisfaction from him and his pure resources. As a result, our passions draw their fulfillment from the world around us, and all we have to contribute is the debris and pollution we have accumulated. Sadly, a bird's-eye view of Christianity looks like that at times, with the pollutants of misplaced passions spilling into the sacred seas of church, home, and friendship.

To reverse the flow means that we need to restructure our longings. We must realise that we have cultivated a longing for lesser, sometimes-impure things. We must "remember not the former things" (Isaiah 43:18) but turn our hearts toward God, seeking to be satisfied in him and in all that he so wonderfully provides for us. When we do, we will experience the "new thing" that God wants to bring forth in our lives - the miracles of a renewed, cleansed heart that will declare his praise. Begin your new year by reversing the flow.

- Joe Stowell