We are now 8 days into this new year of 2021. I don’t know where you are reader, I don’t know if you have already joined a gym, started buying that healthy food to eat, started reading your self-help books, or if you have started a karate class just to do something you’ve never tried before. Isn’t that usually how our new year’s start? We make the plans to better our lives, we make the lists, the calls to the places that will aid us in our yearly changes. So, today I wanted to present you, the reader, with a thought, how about instead of new year’s resolutions, we make promises? Instead of keeping the changes we want in our lives to ourselves or friends, we make known the changes we wish to happen in us to the One who can truly help us. As a child, I made pinky promises to my closest friends, a pinky promise was a promise we could never break. Promise in the dictionary means: a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen. Let’s talk about what this would look like. First, prayer needs to happen. Talk with God about where you are in your life, your failures, trials, what you do well at, the things you love about yourself, the things you want to improve. Then, listen. Make a list of the things you want to work on throughout the year or years. Remember, that some things take a few weeks to change, while others can take a few months or years to break. Listing out what you want to improve on can help to organize it in your thoughts. Let God lead you in the things HE would want to do in you as well as the things you would like to see improved in yourself. He knows things we don’t even know about ourselves. So, asking him to show us the things we may not know need changing is a good place to start. Then, the pushing yourself daily begins. Change doesn’t always happen overnight. Allow God to work, accept his work, even when it hurts. The most beautiful things in the world didn’t get there easily. Behind some of the most beautiful moments are moments of anguish, trials, heartache, failure, tears, pain, giving up, then beginning again. But a promise is not meant to be broken. Even when you give up on yourself, God will not.
Let’s take a look at some promises God makes to us, his people, in the bible.
- Psalm 145:9: “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.”
- 1 Chronicles 16:34: “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.”
- James 1:17: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
- Isaiah 40:31: "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
- Isaiah 41:10: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”
I just chose a few, there are so many promises in the word that we can live by and be strengthened by. I, for one, am thankful every day for the promises of God. Promises that I know will come to pass because our God fulfills all of his promises to us. If God makes promises to us and keeps them, isn’t it only good and right that if we make promises to God that we should try with everything in ourselves to keep them? And God makes it easy for us to do so because He is right there with us, giving us strength, hope, love, grace for when we mess up. So, this year, starting now, begin your journey of change WITH God. Make some promises to him that you don’t plan on breaking. Make some promises to yourself that you will try and not give up. Let this be a year of strength, love, faith, and hope in the things we cannot see. If you fall, get up the next day and try again, there is no time limit for growth.
He gives us Roots so we can Fly. Roots and Wings.
