New Year Resolutions or Reflections

Happy New Year

I love New Year but I am not a great fan of New Years Resolutions. I have made to many, only to fail and then be consumed by guilt !
However, I like the idea of New Years Resolutions. I think  New Years Resolutions provide the opportunity for new beginnings. A point in time when we can make a fresh start. Clearly, you don't need to wait for New Year to do that, but it does provide a type of stimulus for thinking:
'this is my goal for this year, what I want to achieve'
or
'I am drawing a line under that and moving on'

So instead of making New Years Resolutions, I like to reflect on events of the last year, and ask God for fresh vision and inspiration for the coming year. And I would like to invite you to take a moment to do the same.

As we reflect, for some of us, last year will have been wonderful, but for others it will have been marked by sadness and grief.

If the past year has been full of happy memories then we start the new year feeling full. Reminded of Gods goodness and love, we can be expectant of more to come because we know God's intention towards us. His intention is to 'prosper us and not to harm us' .
If the last year has been marked by tragedy and loss; broken promises or pain, then the New Year provides and opportunity to draw a line under the sadnesses and start afresh. It is possible to find hope again. God's promise to us is to 'give us hope and a future'.

We read in Jeremiah 29:11-13
For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord.

We live in the present not the past. We do not have to be defined by our past. It is possible to live for today, with hope for the future. We live in a hurting world where life can be brutal on hope. But 12 days ago we celebrated Christmas. Jesus was born with a mission to restore hope to a hurting world. Emmanuel, God with us. Lets not forget this too quickly as we (for those of you who are British) take down our Christmas decorations today on the 12th day after Christmas.

Like I said, I am not a big fan of New Years Resolutions, but I have asked God for fresh vision and dreams for 2013. Some are personal. Deep desires and crys of my heart. Others are intensely practical like 'learn French'! I have written them down and asked God to breath life into them, to help me actualise the vision into my mission, to make the dreams into real plans.
Jesus was part of Gods plan to give us a new start. Jesus life was a hands-on practical, dirty, sweaty reality. Beautiful yet harsh. Life-changing but life-costing.

What are your visions and dreams for 2013? What will be your hands-on practical reality in 2013?

Isaiah 43:19 tells us
Forget the former things;
Do not dwell on the past,
See I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
And streams in the wasteland

I pray that you will know and see God making a way where he needs to, ....a way through the desert and streams in the wastelands ..... that you may have hope so you can walk in all the plans God has for you ..... to prosper you and not to harm you ...... in this coming year.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year.