Psalm 25:4-5 NIV– Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Entering into another year tends to give us a sense of a beginning, starting over, or a redo. Why? Well mainly because of our Western calendar. But it is also because the era we’ll enter into will take us on a new date with a new title. Each year is renamed as if to have a new identity.
Identity
Titles can give us a sense of identity or help others to understand who we are much better. While some of them absolutely don’t define us, some do. It’s up to you to decide on the theme, title, or destiny you wish to reach and take-on when you find yourself in a new time or space. Who will you be when you step into it? What will you decide to do when there’s a new opportunity or a new year? Time to get moving no matter what age you are!
No matter what changes occur, we will need God to walk with us to stay the course with whatever it is we desire to accomplish. Take Jesus for example. In the Bible, he has many titles that he was given and humbly wore- Messiah, Lord, Immanuel, King of Kings, Lamb, Light, and Prince. But no matter what title he was known for, big or small, he understood what he came to do. And he knew he needed a guided connection from his Father. This was in order to regain or remain in his strength during temptation, and emotional pain, to focus on the tasks ahead. We will need the same.
Hebrews 5:7 ESV- In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.
New Titles
Whenever something is renamed or given a new title it is like a reset. When we become married, ladies have a new last name. When it’s our birthday we have a new age. When we study hard and graduate, we have a new degree title which means we’re walking into the use of a new set of skills and professionalism. When we are now called the new manager or new CEO, we have a new authority with new responsibilities. When the title changes, the expectation typically does too right?!
A New Year
When a year takes on a new title, it reminds us that, like a new day, we can try again. Try what again you ask?
- Try again with a new attitude
- Try again with new commitments
- Try again in new relationships
- Try again to reach new accomplishments
- Try again with a new focus
The whole idea is to do something different because of the new year, but this doesn’t mean we can do things exactly the same. It means that we should, grow, evolve, or for some, completely change.
The challenge is how do we transfer over an old way of thinking into a new way of thinking overnight??
We can start by realizing that most things don’t happen overnight but they do start by simply beginning. We can also begin by realizing that earthly thinking is limited. To exercise hope, faith, and trust in the Lord are ways to grow outside your natural thinking and push beyond to His greater will, and the greater you, he has in mind.
Colossians 3:2 ESV- Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Questions
Does it really take a title to step up to new challenges and make new changes?
It doesn’t have to. As a matter of fact, if we haven’t been given a certain title yet but decided we were that thing or will accomplish that thing in Jesus’ name before we ever arrived or came into those titles we earned, we might align our actions and arrive at our goals even sooner. Think about it.
Does it really take a new year to begin a “Redo”?
Absolutely not. You can start over every day or any day of the year. That’s the beauty of a brand new day! And if you feel you’ve messed up over and over, surrender to God and embrace His grace for each morning. That will give you the strength to get up and press through.
Lamentations 3:22-23 KJV- It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
2020- What Did You Call It?
Take this year for example…2020. What label did you give this year? When we look back sadly many will say it was the year of Corona or the year of quarantine. Because this was all the concern, worry, and emphasis. Many will also say, unfortunately, it was a year of loss or a year they tried to escape. I’ve even heard people say, “Hey, wake me up when 2020 is over.”
Did you know you have a choice in what you call it? Next year, don’t confine your thinking or label your year to what the world calls it. For 2020, many called it the best year of their lives, not because of what was going on in the world, but what they made of it. It was because of the places they chose to let their mind go to see more, dream more, and live more regardless of their challenges.
Romans 12:2 ESV- Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Transformation of your thinking doesn’t always happen overnight but it does start with simply deciding. Each morning is where you can begin and the next day is where you continue again.
You Decide!
Remember, you decide what to label your 2021. It is not what the News decides it will be, or the title your job gives you, or the name your family says you’ve always been. You can lift your heart and thoughts to God. When any negativity creeps in to drive you off course, pit-stopped in a ditch somewhere, you decide to ignore it. Or when you’re invited onto the express lane that leads to temptation, anger, or arguments that will want to interrupt your purpose, take captive those thoughts right away and transform them to the understanding of God’s truth of who you were meant to be!
2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV– We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Proverbs 4:25 ESV- Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
Call It! You Call It!
In this new year, don’t let it come without an understanding of who you are going to be in it. You have a place. We all have a place. It’s up to us to see it, know it, grow it, and become it. Each opportunity, each redo, each new era, new title, or new year, bottom line, is what you make of it. It won’t be up to someone else, or not happen because of someone else. It will happen when you decide. And when you decide, trust in God to carry your journey, and remember to CALL IT what you say it is!
