At this time of year, many folks are making New Year’s resolutions. Some are making new commitment to read their Bibles more. Others are buying new journals to record their daily thoughts. Gym memberships are selling like hot cakes to be used for a season and then discarded – well, maybe some won’t. The diet industry is making millions as people resolve to lose weight or at the very least, eat healthier. We all want 2013 to be a better year than last so we attempt to put aside the old and reach for the new. And, that’s a good thing!
At our former church in Los Angeles, we had a New Year’s Eve service every year where we began with worship and prayer and then we wrote letters to Jesus. We were asked to bring a stamped, self-addressed envelope with us to the service. We would write our letters to Jesus and then put the letter in the envelope to be returned to us at the end of the year – usually in December. I have kept the tradition through the years – long after we moved to Texas.
In the letter, we would ask Jesus for the things we wanted Him to do in our lives in the New Year. Sometimes we asked for material things too but mainly how we wanted Him to change our hearts and draw closer to Him. We would ask Him to empower us to live out the Christian disciplines of prayer and intercession, quiet times set apart to seek Him, church attendance, relationship building, budgeting finances and so forth. We would inquire, “Lord what do you want to do in and through me this next year.” Truthfully, God has new vision for every area of your life.
For years, I kept the letters I’d written. It was a reminder of answered prayers and also served as a real faith builder to see what God had done in response to my letters. While there are a number of ways to begin the New Year, I encourage you to get God’s perspective and vision for your life in a most personal and intimate way – regardless of what that looks like! Hear God and begin this New Year with a clear, fresh, clean slate. I hope that gets you as excited as it does me!
Happy New Year everyone!
Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it. Habakkuk 2:2