Gearing up for the New Year can be invigorating and also totally discouraging. Our stories will find us all in different places looking forward to or dreading what we think will come this next year. Reflecting back on the last year can also give us a whole gamete of emotions too. Taking time to reflect, pray, and celebrate can be very valuable during this time. Letting God guide our resolutions is a way to practice our trust and faith in Him. Our outlook on the coming year can be one of peace through trusting that God has been and will be at work in our lives.
Often we take our concerns, concessions and praises to God in silent prayers. He loves to hear us speak to him often throughout the day. Sometimes though, we can weave in and out of thoughts and become distracted. Sometimes we have to seek out the space and time to have a necessary conversation with God and be quiet as he speaks into our hearts.
Before the New Year comes, we want to have some conversations with Him. We want to get closer to God’s heart so we can learn from the past year and follow his lead for our lives in the coming year. Will you join us?
A great way to have a conversation with God is to write to him. Commit it to paper, write it out, work it out, keep it to remember where you have been and reflect back on how God has worked in your life.
To help guide some reflective time with God in the in-between space of Christmas and New Years we’ve outlined a few points to trigger some awesome brainstorming and hopefully productive heart and head thinking!
Grab a pen and your journal and write down your answers to the prompts in the four points below.
Reflecting back on 2015.
The Awesome Things
Take time to think of all the ways God has been at work in your life that you are aware of. Praise Him for his provision, celebrate His work in your life! You may be surprised at how many awesome things pile up when you start thinking about it. Write out a list of things to praise God for in 2015.
The Hard Things
Undoubtably there have been challenges or failures over the last year. Write down ways you recognize that God has been with you through it all. Look for the issues that keep coming up and reflect on how God is pushing a change in your heart and life. Take time to ask what the next steps are. How does God want you to grow from those experiences?
Looking forward to 2016!
The inLimbo Things
Perhaps there are some things left undone, unresolved or unplanned. God is with you in the in-between and unknowns. Are there conflicts or plans that you are not allowing God to direct your actions in? Areas of life that you are not trusting God with the outcome?As you think about these issues that feel like loose ends, take time to note how they make you feel that they are unresolved. Pray that you can let go of your need to control, or face the avoidance of responsibility in these issues. There is no better place to leave these then with God, and sometimes this is an hourly practice
The Unknown Things
Who knows what 2016 will bring! Ask God to help grow his vision for 2016 in your heart and mind. Take some still and quiet time to listen for that vision, and trust God to be developing it as you go into the new year. God will prepare you for the year ahead with its joys and challenges.
Proverbs 16:9
“The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.”
It is good for us to make goals and have dreams for our coming year. It is imperative that we seek God’s will as we chase those dreams and passions that are burning a hole in our heart. When we let God guide us in our planning and pursue a life that brings glory to Him, it is even better. We can do our best knowing that when our lives are lived for Him, He will direct our steps.
Our prayer for you this year is that you will live passionately and purposefully as you let God direct your steps.
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