Preparing for the new year

As we start the new year, we examine our lives and our plans from henceforth, even questioning the purpose of which we are living for. We ask ourselves- do our purposes have lasting value? What will happen to us when they lose their meaning? Or are they simply distractions in the first place, pulling us from what we should actually be focusing on?

With the fresh start of the new year, let's set our focus right! Phil 3:10-14 encourages us - as we remember our downs, let us remember that Jesus had it more than us! Press on with the power of Christ!

Often, one of the barriers we face is the inability to forget what is behind. Some of us can't look forward because we can't move on from our regrets. We fail to forget what we should forget and remember what we should remember. Indeed, the past can be a prison that entraps us, haunting us and affecting the present. Things like our failures, sin add up to condemn us and cripple us from being able to break the pattern of the world. Often we are unable to see past this hurdle.

We need to let go of the past, and trust in God's record of it! Hebrews 10:17 confirms that God will "remember no more", and He means it! It is not that He is forgetful, but he chooses to. Yet it doesn't mean that God doesn't care about the broken-hearted (Psalm 147:3 and Psalm 34:18). Let's learn to let go, and let God (if we hold any memories that hurt us) for there is no broken heart that is too big for God to mend.

Also, we have to strain towards what is ahead. Let's not be comfortable with what we currently have - but instead have holy discontent, for the things of God! [Strain] suggests stretching a muscle further and further, continuously pushing forcibly towards something. In the same way, let us strain spiritually! We shouldn't follow Jesus as and when we feel like it. To be christian means to be a little Christ, a follower that keeps his eyes on God. So give God your best life and not the leftovers, because He gave us His best!

However, we can't do that just by having that in our minds alone. Serve God! Not only in church, but in schools, in our workplaces. Indeed, no matter where or who we are, let us give God our best. We must also remember to not let the world determine who we are, and value ourselves the way God values us!

In 2012, let us be an example to the people around us! And let us rise up, as people of God, who are not made to settle for anything less than Him. Let us not lose our roles in the kingdom of God, for we are made for greater things(:

So let us look ahead! Are you ready? The year where God is with us starts now.