When the calendar year comes to an end, we think of January 1st as an automatic reset because a yearly cycle has ended, and a new one is beginning. Maybe we think this naturally. or maybe we have been programmed to think this way - maybe a combination of both.
The date itself of January 1st will change nothing in our personal lives. Sure, it is a date that tends to cause us to think what isn't right will automatically become so as the clock strikes midnight. This is false hope to think change simply occurs after the last minute of December 31st because we want it to.
The truth is that we are the same person we were yesterday and for all the years except for the diligent seeking of God's mind coupled with the humble turning from our prideful ways toward ways that reflect His image.
How excellent it is to set goals, make plans, to reflect and assess, and to look ahead! In order to grow in our personal lives as we desire, we must realize the plans are helpful tools, but they are powerless without submission to the Holy Spirit directing and empowering fulfillment of action.
To determine necessary steps or outright changes that are prerequisites of growth, there is one Resource that has answers for each of us individually. Only God knows where we are in our journey, where we've been, what we've been through, what we are currently going through, and what this new year will bring into our lives. There's only one Book that holds the wisdom, guidance, comfort, healing, instruction, and absolute truth needed for our personal lives. It is an Old Book for a New Year ~ it is God's Word ~ our daily necessary food.
In all our planning for life, there is one activity that should never be neglected - reading God's Word with a listening heart. It is His Love Letter to us written in actual words that we can read over and over and carry with us in our hearts. It should be with prayer that the Holy Spirit will reveal truth to us as we read. It is a Living Book: we do not have to live as though we were dead and unable to read the Bible ourselves, dependent on a man to be God's Spirit. There is only one God.
"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." -I Timothy 2:5-6 KJV
God speaks to us directly through His Spirit as we allow Him to. Always run every single word spoken - in daily conversation, in passing comments, in accusations, in sermons, in lessons... and every word written in a book, in a phone text or email or letter... through the Word of God by His Spirit.
Think on the truth of God's Word - Who God is, how He loves us, how He is full of grace and mercy, how He is with us -never failing, how He lovingly thinks on us and cares about every detail of our lives.
Without a regular intake of God's Word, it is impossible to fight off the untruths that fly all around us - spoken or written.
Reading God's Words isn't about which plan you use or how fast you can read through the whole Bible; it's about connecting with God.
"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" - Micah 6:8
To be strong in the Lord this year, read His Word.
Happy New Year!
~ Jeri Lynn