New Year New Start!

With the new year comes a new chance to start fresh, to look at things in a new light and to make it the best year yet! Prior to the clock striking midnight, I had a lot of anxiety regarding what was going to happen with my life this year. Granted I'm not guaranteed tomorrow! It's funny how we can plan and plan and what we think will happen never does or if it does, not the way we planned. I can look at the past year and pick it apart, being disappointed in life decisions I made that did not work out. I would however, rather look at those decisions that led me to new experiences and stepping outside my own worldview and small box I can sometimes find myself stuck in.

I'm not much on resolutions because let's face it.....I'm really bad at sticking to them. It's not that I don't have good intentions it's that life gets in the way and I tend to not make them a priority. I would love to lose twenty pounds by the time my daughter gets married, it will just be a matter of me eating healthier and exercising more. How often have you started off doing well and then not made it a priority after some time.

My first church service of the year started off with John 15:16, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you." The thought that God Almighty, creator of the universe chose me to bear fruit for His kingdom kind of made me stand up and take notice. Only by my abiding in Him can I bear fruit for Him. It is really difficult to abide in Him when I have made other things priority in my life. So a fresh start it is, not resolutions but additional grace and strength from God. God has shown me the things I have allowed to take over my life and mind and I have laid them on the altar for Him as of today. Only with His help will I be able to "move on" past the distractions. If He wills it He'll do it!

If there are things from the past year keeping you from a closer relationship with the Lord, then there can not be a better time to take that step and laying them aside. With a New Year brings new vision and new hope and in Him all things are made new!