“New Year, New Me, New You.”

Well here we are, we’ve made it.  We are at the beginning of a brand new year.  We’ve had some great times, some bad times, some happy times, and yeah, some sad times in 2013.  Some may say good riddance to you 2013, I’m glad to see you go.  Others may cry, sensing a feeling of loss, remorse or even become melancholy at the exodus of the old year.  But either way we all must take a step back and look in retrospect at the old year, and decide definitively, “What am I going to do now?”  Will I move forward, or will I stay stuck in 2013, or any other year that has passed in auld lang syne?   Which for those that don’t know means, long, long ago.  Will I make this year a great success, or will I meet you here next year, same bat place, same bat time, (for those old 1966 Adam West BatMan sitcom watchers).   Not having moved, nor having accomplished anything?  Will I advance toward my goal, or step into my destiny?  Or will I sit with my one talent, hide it in the ground and wait for my master to return, who in my heart I secretly harbor ill thoughts toward of being too hard, unjust and unfair.  Then run and dig up my one talent that he gave me when I see him coming, just so I can show him that I saved my one little talent exclusively for him, and have done nothing with it, and even worse, have not to share it with anyone else?  Nobody even knows I have it.  Hmmm.  Will I embark upon a new adventure, or begin a new quest?  Will my pursuit of excellence and a renewed state of mind stop if I hit a road block on my journey?  Will I give up my goal, my voyage, my expedition when I’m meet with a seemingly overwhelming and difficult challenge?  Will I listen and giver ear to the nay sayers, back bitters and dribble talkers as they try to expel their venomous toxins upon my dreams.  Will I just lay down and roll over as if for dead when everything does not go as anticipated with my strategic plan, in my trek to greatness?  Will I just sit back and wait for things to happen, or take what it is that someone else thinks I deserve?  I think not.  For I am determined, and I am prepared, and I am resolute in this new year, to take my life back into my own hands, and to put it firmly into the hands of the Lord.  To meet my challenges head on.  To not stop until I have apprehended my established goal.  To not back up.  To not take down.  To not give in.  To not surrender, relinquish, hand over, give up or give away, ANYTHING that God has declared unto me, and has said is mine.  Even if He has only released it in the spirit and has not yet revealed it to me with my physical eye.

And so I present this last thought to you my fine ladies and gentlemen.  Boys and girls.  Children of all ages;  We do not have the time to waste our lives on foolish and trivial things.  Things that perpetually hold us back and keep us in bondage.  For time waits for no man.  It passes you by, and leaves you wondering exactly where it went.  And so, It is time to change our mindsets.  It is time THIS YEAR, to stop being mad.  Time to stop being angry.  Time to forgive those who have wronged you.  And to FORGET the wrong that they have done towards you.  Time to allow the love of God to shine through us.  Time to love the un-lovely or un-loveable.  Time to use wisdom in every decision that we make, and if we don’t have any wisdom it’s time to ask it from God, who said that He will give it to us generously and not hold it back from us.  Time to be generous, courteous and kind to all.  Time to stop being so selfish and self-centered and self-willed.  Time to bear up our brothers and sisters in the spirit of love and longsuffering, and to not just point the way, but to help them on their way to their victory.  Time to stop using the excuse that “God knows my heart” to be and act ugly, and to do what we know is wrong.  Time to stop slithering around dark corners, peeping and creeping, trying to hide what we may be doing that we think no one sees.  Time to stop perpetrating, trying to be something that you know you are not, when you know EXACTLY who and what you are, and EXACTLY who and what you have been called to be.  Time to stop trying to blend in.  Chamilionizing yourself.  It’s time NOT JUST TO KNOW THAT WE ARE THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD, BUT TO LIVE LIKE WE ARE THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD.  It is time for the church of God to stand up and BE the church of the Living God, VICTORIOUS again.  It is time to rise above our circumstances and to stop settling and accepting second best.  It is time to declare the Word of the Lord in our lives, and in our atmospheres, and in our homes, and to change our situations.  NOW is the time to reach for those goals again; to dream those dreams and to make them finally come true.   It is time to seize this moment in time, and to not let it go until it has blessed your very soul.  It is time to apprehend and fulfill that purpose and those promises of God in our lives.   It is time to let the FAITH OF GOD so come alive in us, so that we can accomplish every word that He has released to the heavens for and into our lives.  It is time for us to allow the very Word of God to become life and breath to us.  For then shall we make our way prosperous, and then we shall have good success.   NOW,  is the time.

Now, tell us what YOU think,