My Goals for the New Year

Looking back through last year’s goals, reflecting on what lessons I learned, and trusting God for strength and guidance through whatever 2018 brings to me.

I took the last week of the year to really think over what happened during 2017 and make some goals for 2018. I really started praying about my future. More specifically, the near future.

That week brought a lot of things to the front of my memory, moments from the year that I had forgotten or pushed away with as much strength as I could muster. While I remembered the countless joys and blessings I had in the past year, 2017 was also the hardest year I’ve had yet.

But, isn’t that how it should be? If each year isn’t harder than the last, how can you ever be sure that you’re steadily becoming stronger, becoming prepared for what God has in store for you?

Something I read somewhere: You can’t have a testimony without a test.

So, while I dreaded with all my might about what could possibly go wrong in 2018, I knew deep down that I was going to be okay. God did not bring me this far just to have me fall ‘too hard’. Despite all evidence and reason that asking God for another REALLY HARD year was a very bad idea, I did just that.

One of the goals I prayed for was that I could learn how to have peace during any trial. While I’ve been trying to focus on this for a long time, there was one thing I’d never really thought about:

As Christians, we are wrapped in His arms of grace and love, and He is holding us to show us that we are safe only through Him.

How do I plan to remember this one, simple fact? Because we all know it to be true, but it’s one thing to know it and another thing to remember it!

One goal that will help me to remember this is to learn to step back, and realize how small our day-to-day situations are.

I’m not saying our troubles are insignificant. But when our troubles surround us and we feel trapped under the weight of sin, we forget that God is bigger than ANYTHING we can come up with ourselves.

And to see that, all we have to do is to take a step back. Look at the life you have, the life you used to have, and the path you’re on. You’re growing, learning, and changing. No trial is too small for God’s might. He will come to you when you ask, hold you in his arms, and carry you through the mountains of your life.