"New Year's Renewal"

Have you made a New Year's resolution? Or maybe you've given up on doing that! Perhaps in past years you've been through the cycle of optimism, trying hard, faltering, getting discouraged, and giving up. Indeed, most people who make a New Year's Resolution have given up on their project by mid-February. Many people discard the whole idea and say, "I don't make New Year's Resolutions!" But there is another way to approach the start of a New Year: Pray for God to lead you in a "New Year's Renewal."

"No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." (Philippians 3:13-14).

For a number of years, I've been using the clean slate and fresh start of a New Year to make a New Year's Renewal. I pray about what the Lord wants to do in my life and how I can work with him to grow in that area. My New Year's Renewals always boils down to one thing: More than anything I want to be the kind of person who lives for the one thing of being devoted to Christ with all my heart.

Psalms 27:4 tells us "The one thing I ask of the LORD, the thing I seek most, is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, delighting in the LORD's perfections and meditating in his Temple."

Each year God shows me something I need to overcome or something about how I live my daily life that needs to change so that I can get more centered on Christ as my One Thing.

This year, I encourage you to seek the One Thing that is the best thing for you to be more devoted to Christ. It may just be the New Year's Renewal that you have been looking for!

Happy New Year & Many Blessings!