It is amazing how quickly the years seem to fly by. There is an old saying something like “the days are long but the years go fast.” That used to not make sense to me but feels more real now than ever. There were many things that I purposed to do in 2018, some happened, some didn’t, it’s probably the same for you, and here we are at the beginning of a new year. I’m personally not too much into ‘New Year Resolutions’, however it is important to have plans and goals. A long term vision is good but understand that with the Lord every day offers us new grace, joy, and hope.

Lamentations 3:22-24 says,

22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”

What if starting today we were to fully live that way? What if we put our full trust in a God who loves us so deeply that He gave His son, Jesus as our ransom? What if we were to agree with Him and cooperate with Him every day to allow Him to bring transformation to our lives? What if regardless of all of our yesterdays, today we would let the Lord free us from whatever is holding us back? What if we trusted in that ‘paid in full’ ransom? What if we decided to surrender all of our emotional wounds and offenses to Him? What if we recognized His forgiveness of everything we did wrong in our life and purposed to extend that same forgiveness to those who did us wrong? What if we could grasp the reality that according to Luke 17:22 ‘… indeed the Kingdom of God is within you’? What if we would believe the prayer in which we pray, ’Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?

What if we would see our role in revealing the kingdom of God to a world that desperately needs truth? What if we were to become Christ followers instead of merely church goers? What if we really believed that according to Philippians1:6…’He(Jesus) who has begun a good work in you will complete it…’and we allowed for His completing work in us? What if we lived our life to hear one day, ‘well done thy good and faithful servant’, instead of living our life to get ahead of someone else? What if we saw the virtues and strengthens in others and would overlook their shortcomings?

What if we were humbled enough to accept that our achievements had more to do with the Lord’s blessing and opportunities afforded us by others than it had to do with our own intellect or strength? What if we contributed to someone’s life or to the improvement of our community with no recognition, award, or trophy, but only for the satisfaction of making the world a better place? What if we put our cart back at the shopping center instead of thinking somehow it was someone else’s responsibility? What if we put someone else’s cart back without judgement just because? What if today we encouraged someone by reminding them of their eternal value as the Lord sees them?

What if we did just a few of these things everyday and this year becomes the best year ever?