Happy New year

Well here it is a brand new year again. I spent part of the holidays reviewing the past year and trying to develop a plan for next year. (I hope that you did too). 2000 was like every year. It was full of triumphs, disappointments, and in the case of losing my brother tragedy.
God took care of me through it all and I am thankful for His help.

I always categorize my goals into spiritual, career and personal. The biggest disappointments for me this year were in the spiritual category.
I had hoped that several friends of mine would have accepted Christ as their personal Savior last year; however, some of them remain lost and if they were to die today would be separated from Christ (and all of His
followers) for eternity. I feel terrible about that. I feel that I failed them by not inviting them to church more often, and I did not pray for them enough. I also fell short of my goals in the area of personal improvement of some faults that I have. I don’t think that I put enough emphasis on it, otherwise I would have been more successful.
The one area where I achieved the most was in the area of my career.
Horizon again had a gangbuster year. Although I am thankful for our success in that category, this year I am determined to achieve more
success in the spiritual and personal categories too.

As I thought about ways to improve in all areas, I hit upon what I believe to be the most effective tool to assist me in my efforts. This year I am determined to improve my prayer life. After carefully analyzing everything, I have concluded that the answer to my problems (and yours) is prayer. Although without question it requires work on our parts too, I cannot think of anything that could be more beneficial to improving any situation than an effective prayer life. The Bible teaches that we should pray constantly. It shouldn’t just be I want, I want, I want, but also some thank you, thank you, thank you as well. God is our Father and we should establish a relationship of sharing everything with Him on a personal basis. We should ask Him for help where we are weak and we should thank Him for everything.

The Bible states that we do not “wrestle with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”, (Eph.6:12). How can a mere mortal fight against supernatural forces of evil that possess power that we do not possess? The answer is that “alone” we cannot, we are too weak, but with God’s help we can be victorious. Join me this year in renewing our prayer lives that we may have more triumphs and less disappointments in ALL areas of our lives.

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Phil. 4:4
Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again I will say rejoice!
Let your gentleness be known to
all men. The Lord is at hand.
Be anxious for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your
requests be made known to God;
and the peace of God which
surpasses all understanding, will guard
your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus.

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