Can you believe it? It's that time of year again. A new year is upon us! We're all reflecting on the previous year and trying to prepare ourselves for the new year. If you're like me, you've been reflecting for some time now. You're most likely counting ALL your blessings and/or also regretting some things, wishing you would have done a few things differently this past year. Perhaps you didn't STRIKE THE WATER as you desired or planned. Maybe you didn't get around to everything you wanted to accomplish. You didn't reach your goal/goals. Maybe the year left you feeling down and defeated due to things beyond your control. Believe me! I understand. I get it. Then again, it may have been your best year yet full of blessings and answered prayers. You're not sure how the new year could ever top the last. However, we are all here now (ready or not)! We can't go back and change the previous year or the things that took place in the year. We can't undo the words spoken or change actions done. We can, however, do our best to prepare our hearts and selves for the upcoming year. We can take the lessons learned over time and apply them to now and the future. We can make all the resolutions we want! We can start fresh first day of the new year. We can pray more. We need to read the Bible more. We can do a devotional. We can renew our relationship with God and intend to grow spiritually as well as disciple others. We can prepare to lose weight by balancing our meals and joining a gym. We're determined to save money and be on a budget in the new year. The goal is to become debt free! We can set goals to travel to different places and experience new things. We're hoping to make more memories together as a family. The focus will be on quality, not quantity. A new year full of good plans and intentions proclaiming this new year will be the year of productivity and prayers answered! Our hope is that it will be the best year yet! Yet, after a couple of weeks into the new year, where do our expectations and resolutions go? If you're really intentional and positive, they are solid for some time (maybe even until March or April). However, if you're like most; the resolutions fade, disappear, or deflate when things get busy or chaotic. Time limits you! It becomes a factor, an excuse. You go back to school. Your short staffed at work. Bills pile up. Someone gets sick. There is a family crisis. Life starts to distract us from our goals, plans, intentions, and resolutions. The things that took precedence in the first few weeks of the new year (that we make time for) start to take a back seat to the circumstances of life whatever they may be. We're too busy to pray or spend time with God. We're too tired to meal prep. We're too exhausted to exercise. We're too tight on money. We're too stressed to read and expand our minds. We don't want to do this or go there. It's all just too much! We tend to just get busy leading to stress, distractions, and exhaustion to carry out our well-intended resolutions. Not carrying out our resolutions leaves us disappointed and depressed because we didn't or couldn't make things happen due to circumstances. I may only be talking to myself here and if so, then, it's fine. I need to say it, hear it, read it, and process it! My thoughts and prayers these last few weeks have been not only to be successful in my new year resolutions, but to receive revelation/revelations in the new year. Let there be resolutions and revelation in the new year! Then, a question pricked my heart that lead me to thinking. How can I be successful in my resolutions if I do not have true revelation of what my resolutions should be? According to the Oxford Dictionary, a resolution is a conversion process of something. It's a decision to do something or not to do something. It's also the quality of being determined or the action of solving a problem. How will I know what to determine to fix in my life if the revelation of the problem is not present? Then, it hit me! Revelation has to proceed resolution! We're doing a disservice to ourselves and others if not. It may be one of the reasons why we fall off the wagon so quickly. You cannot fix a problem if you are not aware that there is a problem. My Beau had a great analogy! If you're using a compass and you veer off the trail even 5 degrees; you wouldn't think it's enough to make a difference but you could potentially end up hundreds of miles off course. That's dangerous and scary! However, being made of aware (having revelation), if you resolve your mistake even by 1 degree; it helps you to get back on track to the appointed destination. You see, even a shift in the smallest degree of the right direction is considered resolution. If we go from 0 minutes of prayer to 5 minutes of prayer, that's a resolution. If we go from inconsistently reading the Word to reading a chapter a day, that's a resolution. So, how do we become aware or more aware? Where does the revelation come from? Revelation comes by God and in his time. 1 Corinthians 4:5 tell us "Judge nothing before the appointed time; WAIT until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart." How do we gain revelation by God? By spending time with Him, communicating, and learning from Him. We must spend time with Him consistently and wait on His voice. 2 Timothy 2:15 says "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." That is the overall resolution! No one wants to live with regret, disappointment, or shame. The beauty of it all is that we don't have to. The potential and promise to handle truth correctly is there. Lord, open our ears that we may hear your Word. Romans 10:14 tells us "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" Open our eyes that we may truly see your word. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves." Open our hearts that we may receive your Word and open our minds that we may understand your Word. Luke 24:32 says "They asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" To hear the Word of God, we have to have someone speaking truth (the Word of God) over our hearts and homes consistently (daily). To see the Word, we have to read it for ourselves consistently (daily)) praying for revelation as we read. The words come to life! Our hearts and minds have to be renewed consistently (daily). David prayed in Psalm 51 for God to forgive him and to create in him a clean heart and renew in him a right spirit. This is a must! Romans 12:2 tell us "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing, and perfect will." We are called to resolve! That may look differently to others and that is ok. James 1:22 says "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." If you're questioning something, pray on it. Give God time to speak to you on behalf of the matter. If the action contradicts the Word of God, don't do it (even if everyone else is). Luke 6:49 says "But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on a ground without a foundation." No one wants to purchase a home with a cracked foundation so why do we live our lives with cracked foundations?-Let There Be A Genesis Experience Devotional I don't know about you, but I do not want to settle in any way in the new year. I want everything that God has for me and my family. I don't want to live with regret. I don't want to limit God or myself due to doubt or unbelief because of my unfaithfulness. As we welcome this new year, let's pray for revelation and strength to resolve matters that God brings to our attention. It's part of repentance. Pray David's prayer. Allow God to fix your foundation. He is our source, the core of us. He will give revelation of things that need to be resolved in our lives so that we can be pleasing to Him in ALL things. Be intentional with your actions! Remember that even 1 degree can help you to stay on track to reach the destination. In this new year, I pray that you are blessed but I also pray that God gives us all revelation on what to resolve and how to resolve so that we can be more like him and bring others to him. Let There Be Revelations and Resolutions! Happy New Year from my heart and home to yours.
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