Happy New Years 2012!

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.” (Isaiah 65:17)  

Wouldn’t that be cool to wake up on New Year’s Day and find out that passage was true? No more sufferings, wars, injustice, or brokenness!  One day that Day will come! All will be made brand new; way cool!

But alas, that Day is for another time; and so for the time being, we work with what we can; namely our own selves. And so, New Year’s is a starting point of new beginnings for many people. But for so many, these new beginnings end as quickly as they start.

 Why? Because we have a hard time really changing ourselves outside the power that comes through Jesus Christ. On our own we try our best to set goals for the next year; some lofty and some attainable, and still we fail to arrive at our destination

The hope is that the Bible tells us: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Does that mean EVERY area of our lives will be instantly changed in a way that we see it? Unfortunately; no it doesn’t.

But what it does mean is that our spirit man is changed when we surrender our lives to Christ. And He starts the work; our part is to cooperate with what He is doing “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

In the meantime, one thing that we can all work on is learning to love ourselves and accept who God has made. After all, “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

Some of what we need to work on is simply loving and accepting who we are, as we are. Some parts of who we are make us unique and wonderful and powerful; in spite of how they are different from others.

Let me be clear; I’m not talking about things that are wrong; after all we share this planet together. There are some areas where we NEED to take a deep look at ourselves and STOP doing and SAYING harmful things; PERIOD.

What I am writing about are the things that we don’t like about ourselves. Things that are too big or too small or too short or too tall. So, we tuck, and we cut, and we snip, and we peel, and do ANYTHING so that we don’t have to be who we really are.

Someone once said; “If you're not being treated with the love and respect that you deserve, check your "PRICE TAG". Perhaps you have marked yourself down. It's "YOU" who tells people what you're worth by what you accept. Get off the "CLEARANCE RACK" and get behind the glass case where they keep the "VALUABLES". Bottom line; "VALUE" yourself more.”

So here is my New Year’s Resolution suggestion for you: Work with God and let Him take you through the process; you will find that the results will be eternal. And, embrace who you are! You will never be as good a version of someone else as you are of yourself!

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"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."