“Same ole, Same ole New Year’s Resolutions” By: David LeGrand

When this year is over, will you be looking back with joy, or with regret? Will you be looking at the future with anticipation, or with dread? Make every day count:

NUMBERING YOUR DAYS

    A. The Psalmist tells us in 90:12 “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
    B. Psalm 90:10, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY

Paul tells us that we must “Redeem the time, because the days are evil.” Eph 5:16.

Richard Swenson, a medical doctor, wrote a book in which he discusses one of the major maladies of our time— anxiety & stress. He calls it “overload,” & says that people are just plain overloaded.

1. We’re overloaded with commitments. We’ve committed ourselves to go here & there, to take part in this activity & that social function. As a result we soon begin meeting ourselves coming & going because of commitments.
2. We’re also overloaded with possessions, he says. Our closets are full, & our garages are overflowing. We’ve gone into debt to pay for all of these things that we “simply must have.” And now we’re so afraid that someone will steal them.

3. Thirdly, we have an overload in the area of work. We get up early, fight traffic, & experience intolerable working conditions because we have to if we’re going to pay for all those possessions that we’ve accumulated.
4. There is also an information overload. He said that as a doctor he has to read 220 articles a month just to keep up with all the changes in his profession. And now with the internet there’s an information superhighway. We can’t possibly absorb it all. So we feel an overload in this area, too. There are 8,760 hours in this year, and already many are used.

LEARN HOW TO LIVE FOR TODAY

The two greatest enemies of time are regrets for things we did in the past, & anxiety about what will happen to us in the future. Many are living either in the past or in the future. Someone said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re making plans to do something else.”

During the New Year may you have: Enough happiness to keep you sweet – enough trials to keep you strong, Enough sorrow to keep you human – enough hope to keep you happy, Enough failure to keep you humble – enough success to keep you eager, Enough friends to give you comfort – enough wealth to meet your needs, Enough enthusiasm to make you look forward to tomorrow, enough determination to make each day better than the day before. So use the hours left this year the wisest way you can for your good and, God’s glory.

Romans 13:11-14 says, ”And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.”