Happy New Year, everyone! I hope that the new year brings excitement and anticipation for everyone, because God's got lots of new plans for us this year. I don't know about what God wants to do in your life, and I don't know what He wants to do in my life either, but shouldn't we be excited nonetheless? Personally, I'm really excited because I'm going to graduate from high school this year, but I'm still very unsure about where I'll be in the autumn for college, what plans I'll have for this summer, or even my next day of school! I realize that sometimes I get confused exactly what I'm excited about: what I see in my future, or what God sees in my future? At our New Year's Eve event, I told in my testimony that God is in control, even when we can't understand what is happening, but I find that living that out is harder than it seems. Most of the time, I try to put a lot of things into my own hands. I write everything down in my planner and plan months ahead sometimes. Even in one day, I may be blinded by all the things I "have to do" for the next day and don't stop and spend some time with God. That's not how I should live. That's not how I want my new year, this year, to be. In Ephesians 4:22-24, it says to "...put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." The way that I have been living, the self-centered way that I've been living, is my old self--who I was before I accepted Jesus as my Savior. But with the Holy Spirit, I am a new person. I can live with God guiding me instead of me trying to plan everything. In this new year, I want to recognize God as my renewer, controller, and planner. "God has a plan, a direction for me. As I obey, it helps me follow. His purpose grows in me with each choice I make, building today the faith I need to trust him tomorrow." These lyrics to the song I sang on New Year's Eve with the little kids remind me that God's got a bigger plan for me than I can see, and I can only follow Him one step at a time. Be excited to let him guide you!

Harmony

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