Get Out the Shears, It’s a New Year!

It’s that time of year, my weeding and pruning season. It’s something I do every year. I weed the garden of my relationship life and I prune the things that are obvious to me; those things, mindsets and strongholds that weigh me down. The rest, I leave up to God to perfect that which concerns me moving from glory to glory. 

This is also a time when a spirit of criticism will come alongside me to remind me of all the areas I’m still stuck, fell short over the past year or promise me that God is a liar and neither he nor I, can be trusted to change. And while there may be some merit to the accusations about my ability to be human and walk after my flesh, the business of my transformation is not up to my enemy and neither is yours.

I’m writing to you to leave you with a voice of encouragement as you go into a new year of life.

I want you to settle it once and for all that if you have confessed Christ as your Savior at ANY point in your life, he was, is and always will be interested in seeing your perfection come to pass. Perfection meaning your wholeness. We can be and live whole because we are literally in him and there’s nothing missing in Jesus.

This takes spiritual ears. You don’t have to understand it, but we do have the mind of Christ and when we ask, he blesses us with wisdom, without finding fault. So, ask.

I encourage you to get quiet, confess your faults to HIM. If there’s anyone you know you have offended or held ought against, reach out in the early days of the coming year and settle it to the best of your ability. And remember, not everyone is interested in living peaceably with you. Some are ensnared by the enemy of life and relationship and are held captive by bitterness, denial and resentment.

They have been convinced that being a victim of your humanity is more beneficial than rising above to the perfection (Greek: wholeness) that we are called to. It’s okay. Bless them, pray for their release and take your peace. Take your wounded heart and disappointment to the Lord and let him comfort and heal you. He will.

My former pastor had a saying, “Don’t take someone else’s sin into your body.” Amen and Amen. That means, don’t take on or in, someone else’s inability to make peace. It will manifest in antacid addiction, drinking, no sleep, anger, wrath, headaches and a host of other goodies the enemy loves to ensnare us with. Our bodies respond to our thoughts and feelings. We literally manifest what other people heave on us when we don’t cast our cares upon the Lord as he instructs. 

If you have made decisions that have offended you, your peace with yourself, God and others, this is the time to confess it, receive his forgiveness, forgive yourself and move on with it as far as east from west. A new year, means just that, a new year. Even God had the Israelites forgive debts every seven years. Gone. Not held against them any longer. Done.

This takes faith. This isn’t positive thinking. Because you have an enemy that thinks and his thoughts are not usually positive. He keeps score. He knows yours and mine and anyone who has ever wronged us. It’s just his nature. Let it go.

While we are making vows with our bank account and scales that we won’t keep, it would behoove us to first, attend to our hearts, for out of it flows the issues of life flow. Take your broken or disappointed heart and go to your Father today or in the coming weeks, and let him minister to you.

He knows all. You won’t share a thing that will come as a surprise. We can’t imagine the joy God gets when we approach him in faith, even that of a mustard seed, that he is and he loves us a faithful daddy who longs to support, instruct and nurture us.

Then, take your renewed self out into the world and be the change you complain about not seeing on social media. Smile at strangers, open doors, say a kind word, engage in activity with others you aren’t familiar with. You can’t pray the prayer of Jabez while remaining tied to a pup tent in your forest of alienation. The world needs you. Your families need you. YOU need you.

Make yourself a priority this year and watch as your cup overflows and spills into the lives of others seamlessly. It’s a precept. Love God, Love others as SELF. See the order?

Give yourself permission to celebrate what you did achieve this year. Write it down. Make a list of things you achieved, things God proved faithful over, answered prayers, blessings from others, places you fell short, places you got stuck and invite God into all of it.

A new glory abounds and it has your name written on it, child of God. This is your actual identity, in spite of what life or poor choices tell you. Make the next right choice and keep walking forward. You can’t undo anything from 2016, but you can allow God to redeem, restore, and heal. It’s a choice. Say yes to him today and watch his glory manifest in your life and those around you. This is life abundant.

Start the year off in order before scrambling to leap forward and reconcile your accounts with the most patient, kind, transformative, comforting, honest accountant of all: your savior, friend and lord.

Remember, YOU are God’s first purpose and his first priority is your FREEDOM.

Blessing you with love and abundance in all righteousness, peace and joy. (Pray for mine, too!)

Monica