“How does God want us to live them out?”

It is far too easy to head off into another new year focusing in on ourselves and what we want rather than on our Savior and what He wants for us. It is in our DNA to ask questions like these…

“What are the goals I want to accomplish?”

“What are the plans I need to make?”

“How far do I want to advance in my career?”

“What kind of house do I want to live in?”

“How much money do I want to make this year?”

As you can see, the problem with questions like these is found in one word … “I.” And it is the same “I” that can be found in the middle of the words SIN and PRIDE. We need to remove the word “I” in all of those kinds of questions and replace it with the word “God!”

What are the goals God wants me to accomplish?

What are the plans God wants me to make?

How far does God want me to advance in my career?

What kind of house does God want me to live in?

How much money does God want me to make this year?

The start of a new year is a great time to reflect on ourselves. As we do, we inevitably find some things we need to add to our lives and some things we need to eliminate from them. In the life-coaching that I do, it is not uncommon to hear from the people I am working with the trouble they have in examining the past. They see a past littered with mistakes and missteps and simply find it hard to get beyond it. We would all do well to consider these words from the prophet Isaiah: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing” (Isaiah 43:18-19).

The past is to be treated as a school. We are to learn from the past, not live in the past. This is the key that unlocks the door leading to the life God would have us live. God is doing a “new thing,” both in and through you and the life you are living. God is not finished with you yet. He is conforming you to the image and likeness of his Son and, along the way, you are going to fall short of his mark for you time and time again. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, “The Great Sculptor has begun to chisel out the image of himself in this rough block of human marble; you cannot see all the features, the lineaments divine are not yet apparent; still, because it is in his design, the Master seeth what we see not; he seeth in our unhewn nature, his own perfect likeness as it is to be revealed in the day of the revealing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Remember that “he who began a good work in you will complete it” (Philippians 1:6) in his timing and in his way.

Asking better questions will bring us to better destinations. The best questions we can ask are the ones with God in the center, and the best destinations we can arrive at are the ones God is calling us to.

The start of another new year should fill us with a new excitement about the “new things” God has promised to do. New opportunities. New possibilities. New beginnings. New endings. And most importantly a NEW YOU! Take some time this month to consider the “new things” God is up to in your life, and advance confidently in that direction. What God has promised to do will be done and that includes those things he has promised to do in you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Tommy Boland is the Senior Pastor of Cross Community Church in Deerfield Beach. Worship services are held on Saturdays at 6pm and Sundays at 10:30am., at 841 S.E 2nd Ct., Deerfield Beach. Check us out at: thecrosscc.org. For more articles by Dr. Tommy Boland, visit goodnewsfl.org/tommy-boland.