Thoughts for 2021

Whew! 2021 is just around the corner.
For most of us, the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 is welcoming news.
2020 certainly has had more than its share of life-disrupting, nerve-wracking challenges. “Normal” life was turned topsy-turvy, upside down and inside out. No one would disagree with that assessment.
I am sure you are thinking, wondering, pondering and praying about 2021. Of course, none of us know what the next year will be like. But I do know this: God knows. He really does. He knows about each and every day that you and I live. Psalm 139:16 says so. “Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” Your and my days have been pre-ordained by our Maker. This is good news in an increasingly bad news world.  
So how should you and I approach the upcoming New Year?
I asked myself that question and wrote down some random thoughts for 2021 that will help me, and hopefully you, navigate the new year successfully.

• Leave 2020 in 2020. I will leave yesterday in the rearview mirror and look forward with faith out the windshield of God’s good, acceptable and perfect will for me in 2021. Forward looking beats looking backwards every time. (Romans 12:1-2)
• Smile at the future. I will smile, not frown or be fearful about the future. The future is forward. God is there. Forward by faith in the Lord is the right kind of going forward. (Proverbs 31:25) 
• Trust God for everything. No matter what direction other people, our nation and the world take, I will keep my faith focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. I will trust Him with all my heart at all times. (Proverbs 3:5-6)                                                            
• Live one day at a time. I will rejoice in each day as a gift from the good, gracious hand of my loving Heavenly Father. I choose to make the most of every day for God’s glory and the good of the people I love. Day by day is the way to enjoy each day. (Psalm 118:24)
• Expect God’s best. I will reject the worst and receive God’s absolute best for me, my loved ones, friends and fellow Christians. Expecting the best from the Lord is the way to live a life of peace, joy and victory every day. No matter what challenges come my way, I will keep my expecter expecting God’s best! (Psalm 62:5-8)
• Guard my peace. With God’s help, I will walk by faith in His peace. I will not be distracted, disturbed, dismayed, disheartened, discouraged or depressed by the world’s negative noise. I will tune out all that attempts to steal my peace in Christ. (Philippians 46-9)
• Love and serve others in Jesus’ Name.  I will make it a personal priority to focus on others more than myself.  Life is not about me. It is about Christ in and through me to touch the lives of others with His love. I will serve, not seek to be served. (Galatians 5:13)
• Stand in the gap through prayer. I will devote time and effort to pray for my family and friends, people who need the Lord, the body of Christ, America and our world. I will believe God for revival to come to our hearts in life changing ways. (Ezekiel 22:30)
• Strive to be more Christlike. I will commit myself to continue to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. His likeness is my aspiration and goal. I long for people to see Christ in me. (Romans 8:29)
• Witness for Christ. I will do my best to be a faithful witness of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Through His voluntary, sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus has saved me from sin, death and the grave and is preparing a place for me in heaven. Others need to know this. I pray I will be a positive, winsome witness of God’s love to a spiritually dark world that has lost its way. (Acts 1:8)
• Keep my eyes on the prize. I will faithfully run my faith race, heading steadily toward the finish line where I will receive the “crown of righteousness” that awaits all who love Christ’s appearing. What a day that will be! (II Timothy 4:8)

On the eve of 2021, too many people are anxious, uptight, stressed-out and fearful about 2021. Honestly, how is that a good, healthy, productive, peaceful, happy way to live? Of course it isn’t!
I choose in the new year to tune out the dooms dayers and doom sayers. Anyone with half a brain can think and speak the worst. Biblically, God’s people are instructed, empowered, and encouraged to think and speak the best, even in the worst of circumstances. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I am going to discipline myself to watch my words because life and death are in the power of our tongue (Proverbs 18:21).  
I resolve to speak life and live life in Christ in 2021.
I encourage you to wait on the Lord and come up with your Thoughts On 2021 list. Then go to work on your list for the next twelve months expecting to reap a bountiful harvest of good in your life and others.
Trust the Lord that 2021 will be one of the best years of your life.
“Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet: but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14
A Word For Your Week: Welcome 2021 with expectant faith in Jesus Christ.