New Year

With a New Year here, I think it’s appropriate to talk about some end of the year things we all think and say. I am constantly hearing over and over at the end of each year how everyone hopes the next year is better than before. They set their resolutions and hope for the best once the clock changes at midnight. This year though, everyone is hoping for a much better year come January 2021. Due to all the negativity, politics, and fear that was instilled in this past year, I can understand the want for it to end. But here is the deal, this year might have been the “best” year in someone else’s life. This could have been the year a baby was born, someone finally was able to conceive, someone might of beat cancer, or graduated college, they could of bought a house they have been saving for, etc. Now don’t get me wrong, a global pandemic is enough in its self and is frustrating, but rushing through a year over it didn’t change it. We do not have the power to stop what is happening in this world. Just because it’s 2021 doesn’t mean it won’t continue or get any better. But there is hope, hold tight.

I think we should all take a moment and try to sit here and think of just one great thing that happened for you this year… Take a moment…

You see every year is hard and people go through stuff each year but they aren’t always public about it. A pandemic is a public matter but there are better things in life than rushing the year and worrying about a virus (I am not degrading the severity of it). One main thing we can all agree on is that fear has become a huge problem in our world right now. It’s unfortunate how fearful we can be over something that we have no control over.

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? (Matthew 6:27) NLT

Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up. (Proverbs 12:25) NLT

Here’s the whole point I’m trying to make, no matter what year it is or how crappy it is, God is still in control and there is nothing that can change that. He has plans and nothing is going to stop Him, not even a pandemic. Yes, it’s been hard and people have died, but God was going to bring them home whether Covid was around or not. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but God knows His plans and when He plans for someone to come home to Him, no medicine can stop that. God reminds us in John 6:33 that we will have tribulations in this world, but to take heart because He has already overcome the world.

I think as we all go in another year in this life we need to sit back and think where our priorities are and how we plan to keep God at the top of the list. I used to have Him at the bottom of my list and I didn’t know that wasn’t ok. God had to show me how out of order my life was just for me to realize it. Let me tell you, it wasn’t fun shuffling through that. I have now come to realize how much better my life is that he is at the top of my priorities. Don’t let it take a reality check for you to come to a realization that you need God more than your materialist things in your life. Keeping your focus on Jesus and having Him as your main focus will allow you to have a clear mind over all the other negative things in this life, no matter what the New Year brings you. Jesus is our friend that is always there for us. He doesn’t leave us when we get cranky, He never runs when we yell or get upset at Him. He will always be there waiting even when we push Him away.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. (1 Peter 5:7) NLT

Instead of focusing on the fear and negativity in the world, let’s focus on what we can fix with ourselves and learn to have a relationship with the one who created and already overcame this world.