New Year: Living This Year Like It Is Your Last

New Year: Living This Year Like It Is Your Last (Psalm 90:12)

Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

The new year offers us a new opportunity to look forward, put the past behind, and chart the course anew. It’s a fresh start. Last year is in the books. There’s nothing we can do to change it.

The new year is a chance to examine the regrets, correct the course, and determine not to revisit them twelve months from now. It’s a chance to renew your commitments.

If you’re looking back on 2023 and seeing that somewhere along the way you drifted off course, spiritually, relationally, or financially, I encourage you to consider priorities in this new year 2024. Our theme for 2024 is “In His Steps” I Peter 2:21.

Praise the Lord for the great things He accomplished in this year. God has once again proven His goodness to us. I’m looking forward to what He has in store for us in the upcoming year. It has been said, “Each new year is God’s gift to us; what we do with this year is our gift to Him.” On this first day of 2024, may we each prepare our lives spiritually for the new year.

Before you get too far into the new year, make sure you have what you need to survive spiritually. We all get 24 hours per day, 168 hours per week, and 365 days per year. This is what we each receive to steward for the glory of God, the blessing of others, resulting in our personal enjoyment (in that God-prescribed order; Matthew: 22:37-40).

Below are 7 priorities we should focus on in the new year.
1. Walk with God daily.
God did not design us to walk the Christian life alone. He created us with a need for Christian fellowship to help encourage us in our pursuit of Him. A true and godly friendship is a precious gift from God, and we must intentionally invest in Christ-honoring relationships. This is the single most important aspect of your life, and it relates to your most vital role in life, child of God. Anything you do to develop and enrich your personal walk with God is time well spent.

2. Demonstrate your love and loyalty to your spouse and family.
Next to our salvation, our family is the most valuable gift God has given us. Cherish your spouse and make time for your children. The needs of your family are as important as any other needs calling for your attention, although your spouse and children rarely press on your time with the urgency of other demands.

3. Rest in His sovereign will for your life.
When God allows difficulties in our lives, He gives with them the grace we need to grow in faith and give that faith to Him. Growth in faith is something we should pursue in every season of life. God is in control. Being in the will of God is the safest, securest, and most satisfying place you can be.

4. Be truly thankful for what you have.
The way we steward our finances indicates our most passionate interests. Wise financial stewardship begins when we recognize that everything we have belongs to God, and He has entrusted it to us to provide for our needs and invest in His work.

5. Honor your church family with your diligent and steadfast leadership.
Regardless of your title or your position on a flow chart, you have an opportunity to influence every life with whom you come in contact. Stewarding your influence is choosing to purposefully invest yourself in the lives of others.

6. Personally go after more people with the Gospel.
The truth of the gospel is a precious gift which God has committed to our trust. If we are not stewarding the gospel by sharing it with others, we are not stewarding our lives at all. Stewarding the gospel is, in fact, at the core of every Christian’s life purpose.

7. Do what God has put in your heart to do.
We all have the same amount of time, but unless we steward it for God, we will come to the end of our lives with nothing eternal to show for it. The best way to steward our time is to invest it in that which makes a difference for eternity.

Prayer, “Lord, I dedicate myself to You anew. Cleanse me and strengthen me. Guide me, guard me, and give me wisdom to navigate the challenges that will arise. Fill me with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Bear fruit that remains through me and our church family. Send consecrated and committed laborers. Help us to trust You in, through, and for all things. Help me to rightly steward my mind, my marriage, my money, and my ministry in view of standing before You and giving account one day soon. In Jesus name, Amen.”

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