I said to Brad, the other day, “well, 2023 feels a lot like 2022!“
I was trying to deal with something I’ve been trying to deal with for a while and of course it followed me into the new year.I tend to forget the biggest equation in a New Year’s resolutions or a word for the year, is me. If I don’t change or acknowledge that I am the one causing my own self to fail and stumble, then no word or resolution will ever change me. Change starts from the inside out. There’s not some magical solution when January 1 hits that all of a sudden things are going to be different!
No, the reality is that things will be the exactly same unless I approach it in a different matter.
God is never changing, he is the same yesterday, today and forever and I choose to find my solace in that sweet reminder.
If January, and ultimately 2023 is to be any different than 2022 then it’s me who must learn to trust God more deeply, to understand the temporal value of accumulating possessions, to put people above busyness, to speak truthfully, to listen intently.
First and foremost, I must listen to the God, who desires to lead me through all things. he knows my heart, he sees the true me.
Just days before the new year I overheard the guys in my family talking about getting back to the gym. I laughed as they decided not to start back in January like everyone else would, that’s such a cliché, but instead, they would make their start date sometime in February! It struck me as funny because often I say it takes me a whole first week of the year to decide, what I want that year to look like and what part I’m determined to play in it.
One of the things I love about God is how well He knows me. He knows that on day one it’s not going to go well, and on week two I’m probably going to want to give up, but three, four or five months into it when I’ve seen his faithfulness over and over and over again, and I have seen the strength He gives when I desire to do his will, that’s when he reveals the potential in me that I am often blinded to.
I have absolutely no idea what this year will hold, but I stand firm in my faith that I know the God who holds it all. I’m asking him to show me the things that I’m holding onto that need to be released, I’m asking him to do the hard work in me, and I’m asking him to do it at any cost. He is a good good God. He holds this child close, he is Abba father.
