A new calendar tells us we have been given a fresh gift to build our lives. The problem is that we often carry our old selves into the New Year. So hw can we change anything? We can accomplish personal alterations only with the love and help of God. We can have the best year ever if we put some scriptural principles to work every day of the coming year. I would like to point out a few principles over the next few days. The first thing we have to do if we are going to have a good year, is forget about yesterday. We are told in Philippians 3:13-14 “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” We must not allow the Failures, hurts, disappointments of last year define us. We must also not allow the victories, successes, and accomplishments cause us to coast. What is behind us is just that, behind us. We must move forward, life is about change and growth. We do not have the liberty to rest in the victories of yesterday, nor do we have the right to wallow in the failures of the past, all things behind us help to make us the person we need to become. God doesn’t want us to live with regret, so we must walk in the newness of life offered to us through Jesus Christ. Many of us have had a difficult 2020, with all the new regulations, mandates, and the isolation that has been thrust upon us. How do we deal with the lost revenue, job, and more important the losses we have experienced through the deaths of those we have loved and knew. Greif is real, and we struggle to deal with the emotion that is apart of our lives. How do we “forget” about those losses when the emotion is so raw? In those emotional moments we need to remember that God has something better for us. As we move forward into a New Year, we must remember that as a follower of Jesus Christ, He has something better for us than what is in this life. God has permitted the things in the last year to make us into the image of His Son. We must strive for the prize that is set before us. We must attempt to move forward even when we do not “feel” like moving forward. God has a purpose for our lives, and He desires for us to be a living example of hope and help to those that He brings into our lives. Remember 2020 is about to be behind us, move forward in your life to come to appreciate “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”
