It has been said, “It is only when you exercise your right to choose that you can also exercise your right to change.”
Whatever circumstances you may find yourself in at the beginning of this New Year, know that you can choose to change. It is your God-given right to have a life filled with abundance, joy, and peace.
Where do we start? Let’s look at Philippians 4:8: 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
Paul’s words are all about being positive. Maybe we should pray to remove the negativity from our lives in 2014. Why would we want to change the negativity? What do we get if we remove the negativity? Paul says, “PEACE.” (v9)
But how do we….
- Stop complaining
- Stop crying
- Stop wanting
- Stop wishing?
We can only achieve peace by starting with ourselves, and being proactive to change! Paul says, “Meditate on these things.” What things? Things that are positive. What is in our minds will come out of our mouths and then we will receive PEACE of mind.
Negativity is contagious and it’s detrimental. Take the Israelites who by complaining turned a 10 day journey into a 40 year nightmare of walking in circles. Who wants to live in that nightmare? But we are living that kind of nightmare every day by allowing the ways of the world to influence us and the words of our own mouths to stop us. Pay attention to your words. You might be surprised in what you hear.
Pray to the Lord and ask Him, “Are the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart acceptable in Your sight?”
We can be proactive by effectively evaluating
- our own self talk
- our own words and
- our own conversations.
We can also be proactive by limiting the amount of time we spend with negative people. Let’s try to minimize the relationships that tend to be cyclic in bad mouthing others or being critical in general. Instead, think before speaking and plan your time in the company of those people wisely. It should not be our desire to change others. We need to change. This resolution is an individual choice. (We do not need to be negative by judging others negativity but we do know that bad company corrupts good character so we do need to assess the company we keep.
And what about the movies we watch and the books we read? Are they negative and dark? It is better to choose materials that bring light, life and joy to your life.
This new years resolution might seem impossible but we also are encouraged a few verses later in Philippians 4:13 that it is Christ who strengthens us and we can do all things through Him.
Happy New Year and PEACE be with you!
