It’s the beginning of a new year and although the calendar has been changed, God is not moved by the date on your calendar! However, how many of us think that with the beginning of the New Year we need to make new goals, new resolutions, and create a new vision – only to be disappointed and discouraged within the month because we have not met those goals, dreams, plans, and new resolutions?
As you start this New Year, I would like to encourage you to try something new. Don’t do the same thing you’ve done every year – don’t make futile, unreasonable expectations for yourself. Instead, spend some time with God, pray in the Holy Spirit and get His plan for you for this year. Then, make your plans in accordance with His plan for your life.
When you have His plan – His vision – for your life, you can go forward with great expectation. What you believe in your heart will determine your expectation level. If you expect to success, you will surely succeed. On the other hand, if you expect to fail or think thoughts of failure, you will undoubtedly fail. What you believe in your heart is what you will become on the outside.
If you want a personal breakthrough in your life, you will want to change what you believe in your heart because your belief system will determine your level of expectation. In turn, your expectation will determine your actions. John Maxwell says a “belief is a habit of mind in which confidence becomes a conviction that you embrace. In the long run a belief is more than an idea that a person possesses. It is an idea that possesses a person.”
Benjamin Franklin said, “Blessed is he who expects nothing for he shall never be disappointed.” If you want to achieve something great this year, or in the future, you must be willing to be disappointed; however, you must expect to succeed. Although you will make mistakes, you must expect to win and keep on trying because you will eventually succeed.
Contrary to what many people think, life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by a choice to change. It’s the change in your thoughts that create a change in your actions which creates the results you desire in life. If you don’t believe in something, you won’t be able to live it. I challenge you this year to be the kind of person that wants to get things done without the concern of making mistakes and failing.
Believe in yourself, your gifts and your talents and go confidently in the direction of your dreams this year! Proverbs 23:7a says, “As a man thinks in his heart so is he…” If you want different results this year, change what you are thinking!