What are you asking God for this year? Are you anticipating God to fulfill the desires of your heart? Are you expecting brand new things from God, or will you settle for the recycled things of old? Are you going to allow the past to intimidate you?
Isaiah 43:18-19 (NLT) “Forget all that! . . . It is nothing compared to what I’m going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun it! Do you not see it?” As Isaiah wrote prophetically this verse, he is reminding us not be stuck in the mire of a past that we can’t change. Forget all that! Put your eyes on the new work God is doing. Don’t stay stuck in the past. It will keep us from the new thing God wants to do for you. Instead, declare and make this year to be your best spiritual life with Him. Let Him know, “God, I will put you first. God this will be my very best year. Yes God, I will face challenges, but I will have joy because you are with me in the valley. You are for me therefore who dare to be against me. You will never leave me or forsake me.” God can do exceedingly and abundantly beyond your expectations, so forget the former things. Choose to look away from the past and move forward. Don’t dwell, don’t rehearse the past. Instead live your best spiritual life now! Matthew 6:33, ” . . . in everything we do, we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to us.” He promises that we will lack nothing! He promises provision, heavenly treasure, and intimacy with Him. Just put God first!
Lastly, declare that this year is an opportunity to yield to Him and submit all of your plans, your worries, anxieties, and even every bit of last year’s struggles. Just trust and obey. Jesus said “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). When we come to Jesus with all of our concerns, we are promised a good rest. Not just physical but mental, emotional, and spiritual rest. God will give you total rest for mind, body and spirit. Real rest means resting upon the one who created rest. When we come to Jesus with all of our concerns, we are promised a good rest. But when you feel the rest of God seems impossible, living in the Bay Area, we must trust in Jesus.
Jesus withdrew from the crowds so He could be alone to pray and to refresh (Luke 5:16). Jesus modeled for us how to remain at rest in the midst of a hectic life. Jesus is your rest.
“I declare you will experience true success in each area of your life as you put God first in everything you do. This will be the new year God will take you from glory to glory, because we will rest in Him.
Pastor Joss Katigbak
