Dealing With New Year (Part I) by Filoiann Wiedenhoff

Our main scripture passage for our theme is 

Philippians 3:12-14

“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” NIV

What I love about this passage is that Paul wrote it while he was in chains.  He wrote it with the perspective that he needed to not focus on the past, perhaps the trials or tribulations he was in or he went through for the cause of Christ but was making  a conscience decision to fix his eyes on Christ and his eternal life with the goal heavenward in Christ Jesus.

 One of my favorite scriptures is Isaiah 26: 4 that says He will keep in perfect peace Him whose mind is stayed on me.

What it’s saying is that when our eyes are fixed on Christ  and not on our situations, our troubles or our problems, that  Christ in return will give us His perfect peace because he is our peace.

What does this passage have to do with the theme for today.

Read it again, he’s not taken hold of it, meaning that Paul who was an apostle was humbly accepting that he hasn’t arrived yet, he wasn’t perfected yet in other words he didn’t think he knew it all or had it all together yet but understood that he still had much to learn or still was not perfect and that humble attitude allowed him to still even after all that he did for Christ he still was willing to be teachable not by  men but by God. 

Part of viewing the new year as a new season is understanding that we  are constantly growing and being shaped into the God’s image. That we haven’t arrived yet that we don’t have it all together and won’t be perfect until we are in heaven with Christ.  What it also does is helps us to keep out eyes focused on the prize as Paul said which I heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The next part is forgetting what is behind, not that we are to forget the past but to leave the past where it belongs and to keep striving and moving forward into the present and future with our eyes on the prize which is heavenward.

I will share more about the tradition my best friend and I do every year, that enables us to appreciate the past year, reflect, and learn from it but also to look forward to a new year with new reflections and lessons.

I’m going to start reading the article now.  If you have the article in front of you, you may follow along and read it along with me as I go through it one step at a time as an outline.   

As Christmas comes to an end we anxiously await the words “Happy New Year!”  My best friend and I have this tradition we do every year for the last five years usually around the end of December.  We go to our favorite beach spot, where we talk and pray about the past year and look ahead to the New Year. 

We ponder and discuss all the interesting occurrences that happened the past year; the good times, the bad times, the frustrating times and also the fun times.  We share what valuable lessons we learned from our experiences, what God showed us and how He was faithful through all of it

We do this as a closure to one year and then an opening to the next.  After we have laughed a while and then cried, we begin to look forward with great excitement, wondering what God has for us this coming new year.  What new experiences will we go through and what new lessons will we learn.   It’s all fresh and new and that is exciting. 

In doing this I believe it helps us to view each year as a season, understanding that God is Sovereign and has new seasons of experiences and growth to make us more like Christ.  I can testify there were times we went through seasons of grief and there were also times we experienced seasons of joy. 

It helps me to remember that God is in total control and that we are constantly growing as His children and that He knows the plans He has for us.  Plans of new wisdom, insight and understanding that He wants to impart to us, if we will allow Him to. 

It also gives us a fresh new outlook of the coming year and enables us to leave the past where it belongs, not that we forget the past but learn from it and move forward into our present future with opened hearts and minds to receive whatever God has for us. 

With that said, I put together eight ways we can view the New Year and every year as.

A Year of:

1. New Beginnings:  Start out the New Year with a fresh point of view to new experiences, memories and blessings. Having an opened mind and heart to where ever the Lord may take you with full assurance and confidence that He is with you. (Matthew 28:19-20)  one of the blessings is that by having an opened heart and mind to what God has for us is if we are not willing to be flexible or apt to change we are not allowing God to fulfill one of the purposes He has for us which is making us more like Christ.   

Question:  How flexible are you willing to be with God?  Are you opened to change and opened to new points of view, beginnings or experiences or are you one that does not like to be taken out of your comfort zone, does not like change or feels that there’s no need for change ?