Every New Year’s Day, we are blessed with a chance to start over. Of course, we can make incremental changes throughout the year, but at the beginning of a new year, there always seems to be a fresh energy to make a change in our lives.
It’s never too late to change until it is. “That is why the Lord says, ‘Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me all your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, mourning’” (Joel 2:12 TLB).
The problem we have is we start to think it is too late when it is not. Whether you are eight years old or eighty years young, so long as you have breath in your lungs, you can start over. Moses was eighty when he got his first assignment from the Lord and served God until he was a hundred and twenty.
It’s never too late to start over. “In the Scriptures God says, ‘When the time came, I listened to you, and when you needed help, I came to save you.’ That time has come. This is the day for you to be saved” (2 Corinthians 6:2 CEV).
Often, we stop setting some goals because we have failed at them so many times before. Those that succeed have learned that failure is part of the journey to success. Babe Ruth, a famous baseball player, once said, “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”
Be honest with where you’re failing, then let God help you overcome. “For You light my lamp; the Lord my God illumines my darkness. For by You I can run at a troop of warriors; and by my God I can leap over a wall” (Psalm 18:28-29 NASB).
Christians should have a thousandfold more confidence in succeeding knowing that God will help them. If we ask God what He wants us to do, we can be sure that He will help us to succeed. The secret of succeeding for a Christian is to be firmly planted in the will of God.
Ask the Lord what you need to change, and then ask Him to help you. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:10-11 ESV).
Every new year a line should be drawn between all the years that are in the past and the new year that lies ahead. You must determine what things no longer belong in your life. Ask God, for He will surely tell you. Set those things down that He told you to and then step over the line. Don’t even look back at what you left.
For some things, you need to draw a line, step over it, and then vow to never return. “You certainly heard about him, and as his followers you were taught the truth that is in Jesus. So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to—the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires. Your hearts and minds must be made completely new” (Ephesians 4:21-23 GNT).
You need to determine what things belong in your life in the new year. Again, ask God, for He will surely tell you. Pick those things up and take hold of them. Don’t worry about what people will say when you are doing what the Lord leads you to do. You answer to God and not to people.
The Lord wants more for you than you are yet taking hold of. “Not that I have already obtained it [this goal of being Christlike] or have already been made perfect, but I actively press on so that I may take hold of that [perfection] for which Christ Jesus took hold of me and made me His own” (Philippians 3:12 AMP).
Make declarations of what you will be changing in your life and then write them down and tell them to a trusted friend. As the world was spoken into existence, so your new life needs to be spoken aloud. There is power in accountability when someone else knows your plans.
A word spoken is a thing established. “You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways” (Job 22:28 NKJV).
Learn to fear forfeiting more than failure. Too many people forfeit so they will not lose, which is worse than not trying. Their fear of rejection or humiliation prevents them from reaching their potential. Fear comes from the Devil as one of his best weapons to defeat you.
Don’t live in regret for your failures, but be in awe of all that God would yet do through you. “Yes, God is working in you to help you want to do what pleases him. Then he gives you the power to do it” (Philippians 2:13 ICB).
Stop thinking you are not strong enough even though it is true. As Christians, we are not limited by our strength but bolstered by His. Start thinking about all that God can do for you. I am most sure that our God, who formed the galaxies in a single breath, can help you with anything.
Pray for the strength to be weak before God. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV).
Starting over is the blessing that God has given you. Don’t squander this blessing.
One day does not make a trend, but it can mark a new beginning. “Where you began will seem unimportant [Though your start was small], because your future will be so successful [your end will be exalted]” (Job 8:7 EXB).
Blessings to you,
Paul