3 Steps to Start Your New Year Off Right

Jesus tells us why He came to earth: “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 NIV)  Jesus wants us to experience a life that is fully satisfied, at peace, and guided by the words and love of our Father, the King. If Jesus came to earth to give us an abundant life, then it must be possible to achieve, right? What better time than the present to start your New Year off right and enjoy this abundant life?

Jesus left us with the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us achieve an abundant life. His Spirit dwells within us to teach and give wise counsel.  His conviction and power lead us to produce His fruit.  He intercedes for us when we are weak.  There is nothing God’s Spirit cannot do.

So what is our part in living an abundant life? Here are 3 steps to get you started:

#1 Evaluate Your Life

The first step to start your new year off right is to look back- yes, evaluate your last year.  What lessons did you learn? Think about your successes and failures and what they taught you. I wrote a post on taking a spiritual review that is helpful for reflection. But here are a few more questions to pinpoint how we can improve to begin living out our new abundant life:

How Is Your Prayer Life?

Colossians 4:2 NLT holds us to this standard: “Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.” Sometimes we make prayer harder than it must be. Prayer is a conversation with God.  Jesus knocks on your door daily, waiting for you to answer. (Rev 3:20) He desires an intimate personal relationship with you. One way we do that is with prayer!

•Think about the things that hold your attention and keep you from getting up and answering his knock.  What if His knock was a Facebook notification?  Would you check it out then?

•Is your prayer life a struggle or a joy?

•Are all your prayers “need” related?

•What is your biggest obstacle to prayer?

•How long can you go without praying?

How Well Do You Really Know God?

We can know true joy, peace and rest in our lives when we know the attributes, personality, and character of God.

Sometimes it’s knowing what God is not. When we question His timing, live in fear and worry, feel hopeless or weak, etc, we are letting our human nature take control (so easy to do!)

If we study His word (a lifetime occupation!), we will know Him. Planting the seeds of His word in our hearts grows trust and peace.

Just as a deep root firmly anchors a plant into the soil, we need to be deeply rooted and anchored in Jesus.  Plant the seeds of His Word and fertilize them daily to really know God.

•Reflect back on the blessings you received this past year. What attributes of God do they show you?

•How often do you study His Word?

•What do you prioritize before cracking open your Bible? We all have something that, at times, comes first.

Sinful Nature vs Spiritual Nature

One of my favorite verses from Romans is 7:18-19 NLT: “And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.”

We can all agree with Paul in this dilemma! We try, but we fail. It is our human nature. Jesus knew we would struggle. He told his disciples to “keep watch and pray so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!” Mt 26:41 NLT

•Along this line of thinking, how often do you identify what sinful natures are a problem for you?

•Ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of sin that keeps you from growing an abundant life.

•Do you struggle with living out Jesus’ attributes? I do.

•How does His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control manifest itself in your life? Identify and work on those that are your personal struggle.

# 2 Set New Year Goals

Now that we’ve done some introspection, it’s time to make some goals to start our New Year off right.

Setting goals can be a powerful process for making positive changes in your spiritual life.

I know what you’re thinking and they’re hard for me too… But setting goals works. Give it a try.

•Reflect on the areas we covered or areas you feel convicted to change. You choose the areas you feel led to improve on as you work towards the goal of living an abundant life in Jesus.

•The next step is to commit to working on your goal.

This can be harder than it sounds.

I’ve had the goal to learn to play the piano since I was a teenager. I resolved to retrieve my children’s piano books and teach myself for at least 20 years.  It never happens. There is a myriad of reasons why, but mostly, it is because I am not that committed.

If I was serious about it and really desired it, I would act on my goal and follow through.

Goal and Plan Selection

When you are thinking about your goals for improving your spiritual life, be honest, and pray about it.

•Do you have a deep desire to improve your spiritual life or is it something you just like to think about year after year?

•Are you committed to follow through and make it a priority?

Help to make it a reality by writing down your hopes and thoughts on improving. What areas are you convicted to follow through on?

For example, if you want to work on studying God’s Word to learn His character, then your goal needs to be workable. Decide how often and when you can work on this goal. How many minutes will you give to this goal? The more specific you can be, the more success you will have.

Examples of Good Goals

We work on goals in my blogging class each week. Here’s our instructor’s description of a bad goal: “I want to publish some blog posts/videos this week.” Now here’s the same goal but written in a way that will get results: “I will publish 2 blog posts this week.”

If your goal is to improve your prayer life, plan a specific and measurable goal. “I will spend 5 minutes in prayer before I get out of bed” or “I will buy the book “X” on prayer and read one chapter each night.”

It’s immensely helpful to write out your goals. Plan the steps you need to take if necessary, to help you succeed. “On Tuesday I will research books on prayer. On Wednesday I will order the book “X”.

Setting goals and taking the steps to make them a reality helps you achieve your desired outcome for an abundant life in Jesus. As problem areas crop us, use this same system to take the necessary steps to make changes.

#3 Evaluate Your Goal Progress

•Pick a day of the week to consistently and honestly assess how you are progressing towards your goal.

•What has distracted you or derailed your best intentions to follow through?

The enemy would love for you to forget about living an abundant life and be content with lying on the couch, worrying about a situation, and putting anything other than your relationship with Jesus first.  He would also like you to be so busy that you choose other activities in place of, or put in front of your goals.

•Identify and work on mastering these setbacks.

Pin me for later!

Remember that living an abundant life this new year will have ups and downs. Our God wakes us each morning with his mercies that are new. Lamentations 3: 22-23. This is one of those promises of God that I cling to every morning! His mercies never end. He doesn’t base them on how good or bad we are, but his compassionate nature shines in this fresh morning gift.

When we fail at meeting or keeping our goals, we can ask for forgiveness and direction on how to do better. He listens to the words of every contrite heart.

Jesus Wants an Abundant Life for You!

He wants us to succeed and to live out the abundant life He gives.  Jesus came to give us eternal life but He also wants us to experience “life to the full” in our earthly lives as well.

We do that when we walk with Him in His joy, peace, love, and power.  Accept His blessings of mercy, grace, and wisdom and share them with others. That’s when we are living an abundant life in Christ.

Start your New Year out right and work towards living an abundant life in Christ!

Blessings for the New Year!

AnnMarie

All Scripture is taken from the NIV unless specified otherwise.

“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NLT