A young nun who worked for a local home health care agency was out making her rounds when she ran out of gas. Fortunately, there was a gas station just a block away. She walked to the station, only to learn that their one gas can had been loaned out. So she returned to her car to look for something she could fill with gas, and spotted a bedpan she was taking to the patient.

The resourceful nun carried it to the station, filled it with gas, and carried it to her car. As she was pouring the gas into the tank, two men watched her from across the street. One of them turned to the other and said, "I know that the Lord turned water into wine, but if that car starts, I'm going to church every Sunday for the rest of my life."

We're beginning 2007 by learning to follow the God who still works miracles today, if only we'll have courage enough to conquer the promised land he intends for us this year.

The key to God's purpose and power is captured best by the title of Oswald Chambers' classic devotional, My Utmost For His Highest. I've been reading from it each day for 15 years, and have found it to be the most essential book in my spiritual life next to Scripture. Its title motivates me constantly: find and give my "utmost" gifts and service to God's "highest" purpose for my life and work.

What is your "utmost"? What is your "highest" purpose in the will of God? What is the greatest dream you can envision for this new year? Some of us would rather avoid the question. We've settled comfortably in the Land of Good Enough where we're safe and secure. We know life could be more, that God has higher plans for us, but we also know that we are fallen and failed people, that we're not sufficient for more than this. We're exactly where some of Joshua's people were, camped safely on the eastern side of the Jordan River, wondering whether they should risk the Promised Land.

Others of us are ready to charge into battle. The problem is, we're not sure where to go, or if we are sufficient to defeat the flooded rivers and fortified citadels ahead. There are giants in the land, and they're waiting to kill us. If we march to war in our strength, we won't survive the contest. The good news is that there's a third option. There's a promised land which is God's intention for your life in this new year. Let's learn how to find it and claim it today.