Tag: New Year

Resolutions

It’s that time again for New Year resolutions (that typically fall by the way side a week or two out!). All the usual things like dieting, eating healthy, etc., etc., etc. Yea, I’m already pretty good in the exercise category but in the healthy category I need to drink less soda (I don’t drink coffee; hi-test soda is my coffee) and more water. But my number one resolution is to stop looking at people from the outside—what they look like, what clothes they wear—and look at them from the inside.

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

This is my guiding light for my 2025 (and beyond) resolution. I want to look past the outward person and look at the inward person. It’s actually a pretty simple concept but sure is difficult to implement. I’m sure I will screw up time and time again but I will go back to this Bible verse about God telling Samuel to look past everything in selecting the unimposing David as His king.

I wish you the best in following your own resolutions.

Here’s to the very best for a blessed, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Is Christmas Over?

No. Every day is Christmas if you wake each day celebrating the birth of Christ in you. A new day is a new birth. It’s that simple.

Regardless of what you did the day before, if you repent what you did wrong and ask God for forgiveness, you are forgiven. And the next day will be the birth of Jesus in your heart, if you just allow it.

Christmas is not over if you celebrate the birth of Jesus in your heart each day. And New Year resolutions are meaningless if you approach each day as the New Year, resolving to put sin behind you and Jesus in front of you.

Celebrate Christmas today, tomorrow, and every day in the New Year!

One Step Back, Two Steps (Or More) Forward

I started 2021 with a renewed outlook on life, optimistic that sometime this year COVID-19 will be behind us. I was focused, and had some good New Year’s resolutions. Things I want to do and move my life forward. Until I managed to take a step back on a few of those resolutions.

It’s easy to be bummed when you fall back to old ways and habits or, worse, fall even further back than before. But sometimes falling back isn’t so bad if it makes you even more determined to move forward. Failure can be the best road to success. But you need to learn from your failures and keep plowing ahead.

Thomas Edison was fired from his first two jobs. He supposedly failed over 1,000 times trying to invent the light bulb. We may operate on a different stage but my point is don’t let failing or falling back get you down. Learn. Reflect. Meditate. Then, plow forward. Be determined that for every step backwards, you take at least two steps forward.

New Year’s resolutions are only as good as your determination. Be determined. Don’t let failure get you down. I’m not perfect and neither are you or anyone else. We make mistakes. The lesson in life is learning from those mistakes and always making sure that you’re moving ahead.

Remember—each one of us has a special, unique purpose in life. A purpose that is only yours. A purpose that is truly God given. Find that purpose and pursue it. Don’t let any failure get in the way.

Have an OUTSTANDING week ahead!

He Is. I Am.

When Moses asked God His name, God replied, “I AM WHO I AM.” Fast forward to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians where he wrote (1 Corinthians 15:10), “But by the grace of God I am what I am.”

God is. We are—by His grace. God is everything. We are a part of that everything. Not a preordained, predestined part, but a part with many possibilities. How far we go, what part we play in God’s everything is up to us.

Make this new year of 2017 a time to realize your potential, tapping into God, the I AM of life.

Wishes for a joyful, healthy, peaceful, and blessed New Year!!!

Never Too Late to Come Home!

The truly amazing thing about God is that in His house it’s never too late to come home. No matter where you have been or what you have done, God is the prodigal father waiting for you with open arms of forgiveness. That’s the true meaning of hope in this world of ours.

New Year’s resolutions are great because a new year makes you feel like you have a clean slate. Well, with God every day is a clean slate—it’s simply never too late to come home.

Make your resolutions. Look inward and outward to make yourself a better person. But don’t ever hesitate to go home. Because God is waiting with an open, warm, and forgiving embrace.

Come home!!!

Forget the Past—God Does!

Here’s a great verse to jump forward into the New Year…

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:18:19 

The wonder and grace of God is that He forgets the past—the past year, day, and minute. Every second forward is a new step for you because it’s a new step for God. He gave us His only Son, Jesus, to save us from our sins—past, present, and future. He gave us a perpetual future of hope.

The New Year symbolizes a new beginning. However, in fact, every second of every day presents the opportunity for a new beginning.

Have a GREAT New Year. Forget your past. God does!