Happy New Year! I hope the year is off to a good start for you and that even at this early stage of 2024, you can attest to the Lord’s faithfulness and goodness. Every new year is an opportunity to do some evaluation and reflection. Looking back and looking ahead have been a practice of mine at the turn of the year; so much so that I look to the Lord for any key words, phrases, or even verses to guide me as the year begins. 
For this year, spending some time in meditation in December led me to a word I don’t often think about or even use on a regular basis. But it’s a word that has profound meaning. It is the word attune. I believe God is calling me/calling us to be attuned to Him in 2024.
I had to do some digging to figure out what attune/attuned means. Even though I’ve used it before and had thought I knew the word’s meaning, I wasn’t sure. Here’s what I found:
attuned/attune — aware of and attentive or responsive to something
- Sensitive to something
- Able to understand or recognize something
- Able to understand or recognize a particular sound
- Related words = empathy, identify, relate, sensitive, understanding, communicate
With having a musical background, I love the fact that attune has the word “tune” in it. Recognizing a sound or voice is imagery that hits close to home. To tune something means to bring it into the proper and correct pitch. Am I sensitive to His voice? Have I trained my ear to hear Him, to recognize Him? I felt the Lord saying this year needs to be a year that I press in and lean in more closely. 
Here’s a reality that I considered as I pondered being attuned to the Lord: if I forget Who He is, I am prone to fall out of alignment and connection to Him. In other words, I lose the ability to be attuned. A Bible verse that I was led to is Psalm 78:42. Consider these words:
They did not remember His power or the day when He redeemed them from the foe.
When ancient Israel forget the Lord, they went down a dark path. They forgot His power and authority. Forgot all the amazing things He led them through (Egyptian deliverance, Red Sea, The 10 Commandments, and so on). They came to a point where they even tested Him and provoked Him (Psalm 78:41). They grieved His Holy Spirit. And because of all this, they faced His wrath and judgment. In short, they faced correction.
So what does all of this have to do with 2024 and why such a heavy tone to start out the year? Good questions. I have wondered this myself as I often go to the Lord with “God give me some sort of pick-me-up and soothing passage or word for today.” I don’t like to hear about His judgment. Don’t want to hear about His correction. Yet I know I need I need it. I know I am prone to the same disobedience that Israel fell into. We all are. 
Here’s why this is important and why we get it wrong (these were verbatim some thoughts I brainstormed as I pondered and journaled before writing this blog):
It’s like we know the truth. We understand the truth. We just don’t internalize the truth. We don’t want to make it personal. We don’t want to be attuned to it to the point where we are constantly aware of it and recognizing it. We get bored, we go looking for other things to fill our hunger — when we forget Who God is.
Guys we have to realize that in 2024 as the battle continues to rage, God is calling us to go deeper. He wants our roots and our foundation to be strong. That foundation is Christ alone. It can’t be on any other thing: not our ability, money/possessions, family (spouse/children), prestige/fame, good name, etc. Our identity and what we are attuned to, must be Christ.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22
There are benefits and good things that come to those who stay in His will. To those who do not forget Who He is and do not forget the wonders He has done.
So as we start this year I’ve got a few questions to ponder. I’ve done this a lot lately in blogs and podcasts so forgive me. But I think questions cause us to stop and think and really do some soul-searching. They help us to come into the place we need to be in Him and reveal anything that might be affecting our ability to “stay attuned.” Ponder these things:
Do I have the sensitivity to hear and know His voice?/Am I aware of Him?
Do I seek Him and want to know or understand Him more?
Do I recognize Him?
Do I have the ability to give up my rights when I know the Lord is revealing something I need to surrender and/or repent of?
I pray that as this blog kicks off the year for AS BOLD AS LIONS that we are looking at what being attuned to the Lord means for each of us personally. And I pray it is a thought we keep regularly coming back to, knowing the default setting of our heart is to drift away from, not towards Him. That alone should cause us to daily ask the Lord to examine us and consider if there is any wayward thing in our lives.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! Psalm 139:23,24
Guys much love to you as you set your minds on Him and on things above this year. I always welcome feedback and the opportunity to follow up if there’s a question or something you want to dig deeper in. I pray God’s richest blessings for you in 2024. We may not know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future! Amen.
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Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Ephesians 5:15-17