Southern Gospel News SGNScoops Digital

A Challenge for 2020

Welcome to the December’s Publishers Point. It’s hard to imagine that we’ve already reached the end of another year. 2019 was full of growth, change and challenges. As I think of those three words, I realize that it is true for every year and for some people it’s every day. Sometimes the only way that we grow is through challenges and change.

As we come to the end of the year, I am, of course, always excited about Christmas. If you know me, you know I love gifts, but I’m also excited about a new year. There’s something about turning the page on the calendar from December to January. A fresh start; 365 new days to do whatever it is that we feel God has called us to do.

I love seeing 2020. I’ve already spent a lot of time thinking about the year to come, and one of the areas that I want to challenge you to begin after the holiday season, is a time of prayer. So many people say, “January 1st, I’m going on a diet,” or, “I’m going to read more,” or, “I’m going to exercise more.” Let me challenge you this January 1st, to pray more. People ask how things change. I am blessed to have many pastors who are also very close friends, and they will tell you all the same thing: Life changes the most, and life decisions come the easiest, when we pray more.

So, I ask that you, along with me, pray more in 2020. May 2020 be a year full of vision for what God has, for what he is going to do, what he plans to pour out. That we seek those things that he wants for us; not the things that we desire, but the things that he truly has already put inside us that is there for us to do.

I was talking with a pastor recently and he told me that you are at the happiest point in your life when you are fulfilling what God has instilled in you to do, and I would totally agree with that. Over the year 2019, I will have traveled, by the end of it, 132 days. That means one in every four days I was on the road.

Now, I won’t lie to you and say it was all easy, but God always gave me strength. I had an opportunity to meet many fantastic people, to go to many fantastic places, and to do things that I only dreamed about 10 years ago. God has allowed me to do that and I am so thankful now God has allowed me to do it. It’s people like you that read this magazine and who advertise with us on a monthly basis, that are the people that laid the foundation for me to be able to fulfill the calling that I have for God.

How many of us, as we reflect on the holiday season, realize that this is a great time to begin to pray and seek what God has for us to do in 2020. Maybe you are searching right now for your calling, maybe you’re in a transition period in your life, and maybe God is just getting ready to open a door that you have never dreamed was possible.

I believe that for all of my friends, I believe that for everyone who’s reading this, that in 2020, God is going to pour out extreme blessings. I believe 2020 is going to be a year that we, as a family that works together for Creekside and all of the other events, are going to see personal and family growth.

Now, as we get ready to celebrate the holidays and begin to turn the page on a new year, I pray that you will find the peace that only comes from God, the joy that only comes from God, and the grace that only God gives.

I hope to see you in the new year at an event that I will be at. You can find me at Oxford, Alabama coming up March 21 – 23 at Southern Gospel Weekend.

Also, I will be in Tupelo, Mississippi, April 23 – 25, for Gospel Music Expo. We want to see you at one of these events.

I wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year, from my family to yours.

By Rob Patz

First published by SGNScoops Magazine in December 2019.

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