When people ask me if I have any resolutions for the new year, I first wonder why they are asking me about pixel dimensions in the new year. Seriously though, I don’t really like making New Years Resolutions. It’s not that I don’t have things I’d like to accomplish in the new year, just that I tend to fail at resolutions. The most ambitious resolution I ever made was to read through the entire Bible, cover to cover.
I’m not going to make a New Year’s Resolution this year, but I do have some goals as well as some themes that I plan to pray through in the coming months. These goals and themes might last the whole year or maybe just a few weeks.
Goals
- Get my weight down to 200 lbs.
- Remain consistent in my time with God through prayer and reading His Word.
- Start working on my Masters Degree this year.
Prayer Themes
- God will reveal His plan to me as I surrender my plans to Him.
- This will be my most financially prosperous year as I surrender my finances to God.
- This will be a breakthrough year where God does greater things through me in my family, church, city, and region.
The goals I’ve set for the foreseeable future are things that can fall within my own control. If I eat right and exercise, my weight will come down. If I discipline myself enough, my time with God will be consistent. If I make the time in my schedule and come up with the finances, I can start taking Master Level classes.
My prayer themes are quite different though. Only God can reveal His plan for my life. My surrender to Him plays a role in this, but it is all up to Him if, when, and how He reveals His plans to me. The same goes for my finances. I’m still in the process of learning how to trust God with my finances, but in the past month that trust has gained a huge amount of ground. As I gave back the 10% that He asks for, He made the 90% go much further than the whole amount used to go.
The final prayer theme is my favorite. Maybe it’s because in encompasses the other two, but I think it is so much more than that. I felt the other day that God wanted me to tell someone that God has planned greater things to be done through him this year. I am praying that He is planning for greater things to be done through me this year as well.
Pastor Steven Furtick had a recent sermon series entitled Banner Years. The series was primarily focused on the plans for their church, but it was very applicable to life. I want this year to be a banner year for me and my family. I want to see the greater things that God has in store for us and for our city.