Nothing gets you to “turn the page” quite like a new year! A new year, new goals, and....a new catchphrase?
When the new year rolls around, a handful of church leaders feel the need to make declarations on what God is saying for the new year (as if it might differ from a month ago) and it usually sounds like this:
- "2004, the year of more!"
- "2006, God is gonna fix….what was broken last year."
- "2007, seven is the number of completion….God is going to complete some things in your life!”
- "2010, get ready to see God’s hand!"
- “2014….2+0+1+4 = 7 = Seven is the number of completion…God is going to complete some things in your life!”
Please understand, I love prophetic declarations! Yet, most of these are clever catchphrases, designed to get people excited while often lacking true prophetic substance. Come year-end, most will denounce the year like a bad habit & find themselves limping into Dec 31st needing a new rhyme to get them excited for the new year.
I don't have any clever rhymes for you (and trust me, I tried), but there are many reasons to get excited about 2018! God’s promises are tried & true, no matter what year it is! Here are four statements that could transform 2018 into your best year ever:
Want to see a miracle? Find a person with a sickness or ailment & pray for them! Jesus said you will lay hands on the sick & THEY WILL recover (Mark 16:17-18)!
Doesn’t happen the first time you do it? Pray for another person. For years, I knew what Jesus said about healing, but I only saw it happen in my life once I started to pray for people to get healed. It didn’t happen the first time or the second time, but it eventually did & it hasn’t stopped since!
“…but David, that’s not the type of miracle I’m looking for!” Well, there’s good news: The more you desire to see miracles for others, the more you invite the miraculous into your life!! When you see God heal others from sickness or ailments, your faith is automatically stirred to believe for the seemingly impossible…..and believing attracts miracles! If a miracle can happen in one area of your life, why not in other areas of your life?
People pay millions in hopes of having peace, yet it’s freely accessible to every believer (Ephesians 1:1-2). Isaiah 26:3 reminds us, "You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”
Peace is found in trusting in the Lord in every facet of your life & meditating on His goodness, but that peace can be disrupted when we don’t yield to His leading. When I’ve failed to yield to the Lord, I found disruption & a lack of peace in my heart or in an area of my life. The good news is that at times, that lack of peace will chew at you & can subsequently push you to yield to God’s direction in repentance (as did Jonah). As He leads you, remember this:
- God’s ways are better than your ways
- He’s working beyond what you see & know
- He’s REALLY good, or as Bill Johnson puts it, “He’s better than you know…He’s better than you think.”
When you view Him through this lens, you’ll see that He’s trustworthy, even when the result of your obedience is unknown.
There has never been a point where God didn’t want to give you direction. God wants to lead & guide you, but direction is only beneficial when you follow it. I have found that obedience to God often leads to amazing adventures, opens doors, & a greater revelation of Him! (Note: Obedience has also led to hard decisions that only made sense far later.)
God doesn’t just want to meet with you on Sunday or when you are going through problems, He is longing to have a close friendship with you. A relationship with God is like any other relationship: the more time you invest into it, the more you get out of it. He wants to speak to you, encounter you with His presence, make you more like him (2 Cor 3:18), & saturate you with His love! The beauty of it all is that God is not far, He’s very close! Respond to this invitation & meet with Jesus regularly in 2018!
As I stated above, God’s promises & His word are tried & true, no matter what year it is….and truth be told, these statements are true ALL THE TIME! Quite often, His promises are simply just waiting for YOU to act on them! So apply these biblical truths to your life in 2018 & experience your greatest year yet!
How do you think your 2017 would’ve been different if you walked these truths out? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Side note: Join me on Facebook Live on Jan 12th at 1pm EST, as I'll be talking about "Making Your Mark in 2018! (Click the banner/image to go to the Facebook Page)
Last modified: January 11, 2018
