A NEW THING?

Happy New Year!

Do you set new year goals or do you walk into the new year just like you would walk into a new day?

Do you do a review of the year before as you set goals?

What is your new year routine?

For some years now, I did not necessarily set new goals on New Year’s Day. Most of my goals were set on my birthday and I entered the New Year like I would enter any other new day. However, I thought I would try something new this year for various reasons.

The biggest of these reasons is the favor and grace of God that I have experienced in 2023. I felt it would be very ungrateful of me not to stop and honor the God who did exceedingly, abundantly above anything I could ever think or imagine in 2023. God healed me, He set me free and as I walk into 2024, I can literally feel the change in me. I do not know how to explain how grateful I am to God for His love and grace towards me that in a year of extreme pain and betrayal, my heart and mind were completely healed. I am a new person and because of that, I am walking into 2024 differently.

I know New Year’s Day is really just a new calendar day and like some say, it has no special powers. But a new year helps give hope when you need something new. New Year’s Day allows opening a fresh page. A new year gives a feeling of starting over especially when we need it the most. It gives us a moment to stop, evaluate, and dream a new. When the year starts, the world creates momentum for us to dream and plan since several people are talking about the same thing. It is for this reason that I have decided to set goals for a new year away from my birthday.

My prayer as I get into this new year is for my heart to rest completely in the only ONE who knows the end from the beginning. Sometimes my hope as I enter a new year is quenced by the experience from the year before. Sometimes the pain, failure, and disappointment from the past year stop me from dreaming as I enter the new year but I am looking past the ‘old’ and striving to hold onto the new thing happening this new year. I am walking into the year wiser because of all that I learned in the year before and I know I will see fruitfulness from all the lessons learned.

Depending on what 2023 was like, it is easy to get caught up in its wins or losses. It’s easy to enter 2024 with our guards up so we don’t have to make the mistakes we made in 2023. It is also easy to enter the year thinking ‘you have got it’ because of how smooth the year before was. It is so easy to approach this year from a place of offense instead of approaching it as a new day – a new thing that the Lord is doing.

Isaiah 43:18-19 (ICB) says,

The Lord says, “Forget what happened before. Do not think about the past. Look at the new thing I am going to do. It is already happening. Don’t you see it? I will make a road in the desert. I will make rivers in the dry land.

Isaiah 43:18-19 ICB

My encouragement to you is that you will review and evaluate 2023 but after that, walk into 2024 with the confidence of knowing that something new is happening.

With all the lessons learned, let us walk into 2024 anticipating a move of God and a new thing.

My biggest miracle from 2023 was finding joy amid a huge storm and this changed my perception of life completely. I realized that I can’t sit and wait for life to go the way I want it to be for me to truly live, I just need to intentionally live every day. And live I did.

2024 will come with joys and sorrows but what remains true is that God has got you through each season. God is for you. God is with you.

Let us walk into 2024 with our eyes, ears, and hearts open for the new thing God is doing in us and through us.