January 1, 2019 – Click here to listen
New Years Day reminds me of getting born again. All things are new! All of the disappointments, sorrow, grief, mistakes, are yesterdays news and we look ahead to a grand new beginning for the upcoming year. So many people are trapped in the past. The loss of a loved one, money earned in the stock market no longer there, a failed relationship, or perhaps a poor business decision might be weighing many down and the triumphs for the year shrink into oblivion.
I think this comes from Satan. He wants us to dwell on our mistakes instead of our big wins. I look at mistakes as being evidence that we are human. Someone said to err is human. Perfection is exclusive to God and those who He has called into His presence. I like to think of mistakes as learning experiences and I’m determined not to make any of the same mistakes in 2019 that I made in 2018.
To me life is akin to riding down a highway in an automobile looking through a big windshield. As we speed along something new is always appearing and we only see what we’ve passed by when we look in the rear-view mirror. I don’t always like what I see in the past, so I focus on the future. What will I accomplish in 2019? Anything of significance?
How about you? What will you accomplish that is significant, and by that, I mean something that will last for eternity?
It’s hard to accomplish great things for our Savior if we are lost in our past sorrows and mistakes. Life is full of ups and downs. God gives stormy days and days filled with sunshine. Here in south Florida in the winter we will have a cold front come through with strong chilly northeast winds and the ocean gets angry and tosses boats about and fishing is tough, and then the wind clocks around to the southeast and with it comes warm weather and calm seas that make you feel good just to be alive and the fishing is good again. And then the process repeats itself… I hunker down during the storms and come out and bask in the sunshine during the calm.
When you focus on making 2019 the best year ever expect storms to roll in and roll out. Learn from your mistakes and accept the rain with the sun. God gives you both for now and then an eternity of bliss. Today earnestly look for your Savior and His purpose for you for 2019. He will find you, and sooner or later you will come into the greatest joy that anyone can ever experience in this life: God fulfilling His purpose for you and through you.
Gotta love His plan . . .
Psalm 138:8
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your love, O LORD, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.