Happy New Year to all of you. Someone told me a while back I don’t blog enough. Probably true. Comes down to discipline like everything else in life. I woke up this morning and spent some time selecting a reading plan for the year. I’ve always been a “One Year Bible” kind of guy because that was the focus for most of my upbringing but now there are literally dozens of reading plans online. I decided to start with the Gospels, primarily because we will be teaching from the gospels the first half of 2013 in our Mid-Week Connect Service on Wednesday nights at The Fountain. http://inthefountain.org

In Luke 1:64 I came across this. Hopefully it will be encouraging to you as you start out a new year.

Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. (Luke 1:64 NIV)

Here’s the context. Zechariah is the subject of the verse. He’s been mute for 9 months during his wife Elizabeth’s pregnancy with the baby who will be known as John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah. His inability to speak came about because he doubted the words of the angel Gabriel who was sent by God to announce that his son would become “ForeRunner.” (Maybe they should have started a family band. Sounds like a rock group name).

However, something happened when Zechariah’s words came into alignment with what God had spoken – his worship was released. Stop and think as 2013 begins. What is stalling your worship? What is hindering you from releasing your worship to God? Worship is our highest calling and, as the Westminster Catechism declares, “the chief end of man.” Could it be that what we speak isn’t in alignment with God’s word for our lives?

You fill in the blanks and apply it. Where in your life are you out of alignment with God? Why don’t we purpose this year that we will speak in alignment with what God has already spoken and see what happens? It just may be the key to releasing you from mute praise into a deeper level of worship.

Happy New Year.