BUH BYE 2022...Hello NEW Year...A New YOU???!
Happy NEW Year!
Phew! We made it.
As a little girl, one of my favorite Saturday morning shows was "The Jetson's." Can you recall the lyrics of the opening song? It featured life in the "future." Today, fifty years later, a majority of the show's "gadget" concepts ARE part of our lifestyle.
The year 2023 marks not only a new Year, but it also marks the opportunity for a FRESH start from the unprecedented happenings of 2022!
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:19
God is a God who can make all things NEW! What does that mean?
Despite your past or current circumstances, when we go to God and His Word for His perspective, His guidance on the matter, He gives us a NEW vision and attitude. When I go to God and His Word, I begin to see clearer, and I begin to see through a broader lens about the matter versus my prior narrow view.
Many times, we cannot "perceive" the new things because we are still looking backward, we are nursing "old wounds, offenses" or holding grudges over misplaced "expectations" of, "I thought this or that would happen" [I fondly call that the Naaman syndrome]
The bottom-line question is, as the page of life turns...where do YOU want to go into the new year and the new DECADE?
What do you envision for your life? Each year I take a retro look at the prior year assessing five key areas:
Faith- Is my relationship closer with God this year versus the previous? What NEW aspects of His nature did He show me, and most of all...where did He grow or stretch my faith to experience Him in new ways?
Family- Am I praying for my family's relationship with God? Am I spending a balanced time with family members? Which relationships require prayerful mending?
Fitness- Am I wisely stewarding the amazing "vehicle" God entrusts to me? Am I eating, resting, exercising [staying active], AND also thinking correctly? That's Romans 12:1-3...Am I renewing my mind daily?
Finances- Am I wisely stewarding the resources God places in my hand? Am I tithing, giving, investing, and sharing as He directs.
Fellowship- Am I spending time with "like-minded" individuals who will challenge, inspire, and encourage me as "iron-sharpening" iron? Or have I become as "dull as a kitchen butter knife"? Am I making an impact in my community or sphere of influence in which God placed me?
These are the sobering, heart-to-heart questions I set before God in seeking His guidance at the beginning of each year.
I ask you now...WHERE do you ENVISION yourself for the next one, three, five, or ten years?
There is NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE for God! He's waiting on YOU to catch up to the VISION He's already placed inside of you.
You cannot turn the clock backward, and you can't go back. So, thank Him for the grace to "shake off" the past stuff!
We can take a lesson from Paul.
"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead," Philippians 3:13 AMP
You may not "master" this overnight, yet you can start the process of letting the old stuff go!
He's beckoning you...inviting you to take His Hand and go FORWARD to the fresh and NEW things already prepared for you.
Yes, this is a NEW year and your opportunity for a fresh wind, a fresh start.
Come into agreement with God today for a new MIND, new ATTITUDE, a new PERSPECTIVE...for a new YOU!
Happy, Healthy And Blessed 2023!
######
GEM Resources To Jumpstart Your NEW Year!