Welcome the New Year
Happy New Year! Did you make any New Year’s resolutions?
A preacher once advised our congregation not to make any because we would be disappointed and feel guilty when we didn’t keep them. Well, I don’t call mine resolutions. However, each year just before January 1st and after a time of prayer, I write down my practical “goals” for the year ahead, as well as a “mission statement” for myself.
You have heard the saying, “If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?”
If it’s true as one author claims, “A goal is a dream with a deadline,” then we can (1) set a goal, (2 ) have a plan to achieve it (3) get started, and ask the Holy Spirit’s help and guidance.
I fill in the blanks for each of these categories on just one page marked GOALS: Body, Health, Spiritual, Practical, Family, and Others. Naturally, you would list categories that fit your lifestyle.
“There are far better things ahead than any we left behind,” C.S. Lewis wrote. Most of us who faced the challenges of the past year during the pandemic certainly hope and pray that’s true for this new year!
Did I achieve all my goals in 2020? No, but I did in a few areas—even exceeded some. Around March I had to adjust some of them when lockdowns and quarantines limited activities across our state and nation.
Paul’s admonition to the early church is one to keep at the top of our goal setting list. “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (I Corinthians 10:31b NASB)
Maybe you’d like to pray about setting some realistic goals for this year too. Even though we don’t know what unexpected circumstances lie ahead, we can trust our Heavenly Father to help us through them. He never leaves nor forsakes us. So, let’s reach forward to what lies ahead for us in 2021.
Prayer:
Lord, I ask You to help me and my family fulfill Your destiny for us this year. Equip us with this Scripture: “That the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon us—the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and reverential fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:2) We also call on the Holy Spirit to be our Teacher and Guide during our journey through this year. Thank you for doing that. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Scriptures:
But one thing I [Paul] do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13b-14 NASB)
Behold, I will do a new thing; Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19 NKJV)
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew (22:35-37 NIV)
See our book A Woman’s Guide To Spiritual Warfare, Available on Amazon.
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