An Encouraging Word For The Coming Year

LOOKING FORWARD

Each year about this time, between Christmas and New Years, people are gearing up for how they are going to navigate the coming year. They make resolutions or maybe they check out the local gym and make statements about how they are going to “do it different” in the coming year.

Goals for a new year are wonderful and should always be considered, but it seems that around February 12th of the new year, the wheels come off the bus and we are not going to the gym anymore that we are paying for, we started back to eating things we should not and the resolutions turn into faded memories of the past year.  It is a fact that human nature wants the least amount of effort to yield the maximum result. The problem with that logic is that most things that take little effort don’t produce sufficient results.

In Proverbs 3:5-6 is says,   "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;   in all your ways submit to him,   and he will make your paths straight."
As followers of Christ we are told that we need to simply “trust God for our future and let Him direct us in everything.” This can seem like a simple directive but there is even effort in this simple request. I understand that statement may sound anti-Biblical but just hear me out.    If we want to know God and be able to trust Him, we need to spend time with him. This is not just giving him the “leftover” time of the week but making him a priority. Ask anyone who takes their walk with Jesus seriously. Even Jesus said he only did what his Father told him to do meaning that he had to spend time with his Father to know His heart/mind to execute the master plan. So that takes effort.

We also need to be actively looking for ways to let Holy Spirit work through us. Each day we wake up, do we ask God to give us an opportunity to be Jesus with skin on to the world around us? Do we reflect Christ in the things we say to each other and pre-saved people? Does our driving habits around town reflect the patience of Christ? (This is one I am always working on :) So that takes effort.

These are only two examples of walking out our relationship with Jesus so that we can be in a place of trusting Christ enough to execute Proverbs 3:5-6.    

So, this coming year, go ahead and make plans to be different/better than last year. Just realize that you need to change the status quo to get a different result and any result you want or expect that has value is going to take work. If Jesus was a hard worker (as we see  in the Bible), we shouldn’t expect anything less of us before he comes again. Also understand that he will give you the strength to accomplish all the things you set your hand to when you put HIM first IN that effort.

Happy New Year,
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Brian Morris
General Manager- Rocky Mountain CTN
Enjoy Life.    Consider Eternity.