New Year, New You

Happy New Year Everyone! It's just January 2nd and already I'm feeling so hopeful for the possibilities 2011 holds!

I've heard a lot of people use the old addage, "Now I have a clean slate!" But can you really wipe the slate clean and start over? I've wondered if you really can. I mean, good or bad, so much of who you are is tied up in your past, right? What can a new year do for you anyway? Is change really possible? I'm not convinced that a new year can mean a new you. Granted, I don't believe that we should hold on to the past, I firmly believe that it does nothing but hinder us, and that we should put it away. But so many people (myself included) look to a new year to bring them a miracle. But as we all know, you don't get those very often. You have to put in the work to get your change.

What I'm more interested in is what a new day can mean for me. I mean, a day is a bite size piece, not the whole enchilada! What if we changed our thinking from the whole, "It's a new year, so I have a clean slate and can make a big change in my life," to "today is a new day, I'm going to make a change today?" I mean, that lines up with the Word, right?

"His mercies are new every morning." Lam. 3:23

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Matthew 6:34

"This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it".
Psalm 118:24

"Jesus said, "don't be anxious for tomorrow, look at the lilies of the field, they don't toil or spin and yet even Solomon was not robed as beautifully as they."
Matthew 5:8

I can make a change more easily in a day than I can making a resolution to change for the whole year! The Bible advocates the day. Not to look to the past because no good comes from it and not looking to the future because we aren't guaranteed the future.

But we have today.

I heard Joyce Meyer the other day talking about faithfulness. She said that being faithful is simply finding out what's right, and doing it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. God says that if you can be found faithful with little, then you can be trusted with much. So why do we wait until January one to make changes? Why don't we try to be faithful for one hour or for one day? For example saying, "This hour, I'm going to stay off of facebook," if you have some kind of bad computer habit. Or, for one day, "I'm going to make the effort to put anything I touch in it's proper place," if you have a messy house. Or, for this day, "I'm going to make the time to exercise," and then you do it! If you do that over and over and over (because it's the right thing to do), then you will have made a real change in your life. But you're only choosing to do it that day, not looking to a whole year to miraculously find your change. Because I can guarantee, when December 31 rolls around, you're going to be disappointed...again.

So that's what I'm looking to do. Concentrate on today. What kind of change can I make in 24 hours versus, what can I do in 365 days? Seems like a no brainer to me!

So how 'bout we just say,
"NEW DAY, NEW ME!"