A New You in the New Year

by Brian Bill
Published December 28, 2007

In a classic comic, Calvin and Hobbes are talking about the New Year when Calvin says, “I’m getting disillusioned with these new years. They don’t seem very new at all. Each New Year is just like the old year. Here another year has gone by and everything’s still the same. There’s still pollution and war and stupidity and greed…I thought things were supposed to improve. I thought the future was supposed to be better.” After listening to this skeptical soliloquy, Hobbes replies, “The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present.”

Do you ever feel that way? While it’s difficult to put the past behind us, it’s even more challenging to be proactive in the present so that we’re transformed tomorrow.

We want things to be different in a new year but we quickly find out how elusive real change can be. We wish each other “Happy New Year” without really thinking through what that means. Is there a way to be happy, or is there more to life than the pursuit of happiness? How can you become a better person?

Haggai 1:5 challenges us to “give careful thought to our ways.” As you look at your life, what do you see? Could it be that you’re struggling because God is trying to get your full attention?

Donald Whitney, author of “Simplify Your Spiritual Life,” offers some questions that can help us focus on what really matters in 2008. Read them slowly and answer them honestly.

1. What’s one thing you can do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
3. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
4. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
5. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in 10 years? In eternity?
6. What’s one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?
7. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?
8. In what one area of your life do you most need to change, and what will you do about it this year?

A couple Januarys ago I asked several people how their new year was going. One answer jarred me: “Great. Nothing’s changed. Nothing’s changed. Everything’s the same.” I thought for a minute and then replied, “That’s good if you don’t want your life to change and not so good if you do.”

If you could ask for one thing in 2008, what would it be? Fame? Power? Money? Good health? Long life? One night God appeared to Solomon in 1 Kings 3:5 and said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” This was his chance to have anything he wanted. Solomon’s answer was startling in its simplicity. He merely requested a discerning heart and the supernatural ability to distinguish between right and wrong. God was pleased with this kind of request and said in verse 12: “I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart…”

Do you want a “new you” in the New Year? Then consider your ways and seek the wisdom that only comes as you worship God by putting Him first in your life. Resolve to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior (see John 1:12). If you don’t have a church, choose one and determine to not only attend, but to get involved. These are resolutions that God will help you keep.

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