Bible Verse of the Day Monday January 1st, 2024

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Can you believe it? Having just celebrated Christmas Day, we look to the end of our past year and the beginning of a new year. This morning, as we reflect upon this new year and look back at the previous year, we wonder how successful we will be in carrying out our New Year's resolutions. Regretfully, some of our New Year's resolutions are dusted off from last year and returned to the shelf. We are about to bid goodbye to one year and say hello to another year. So, when we look back, what will help us put the circle of life in the proper context is the virtue of gratitude, and when we look ahead, what is essential is the requirement of being born again. We can do this to get the best out of our Circle of Life. Looking back with gratitude on the year passed, we commit to surrendering more of ourselves to Christ Jesus as we move into a brand-new year. Furthermore, we should commit to more time spent in bible study, prayer, and telling others about the saving grace of Christ Jesus.

This new day let us all take a few minutes and praise and thank God for the previous year that He has blessed us with and the new year with its many new opportunities to grow closer to God and resolve to be a blessing to those around us. Only some days of the previous year have been a day coming up with roses; there have been some thorn bushes we had to deal with. Not all things might have gone great, but the fact that the Lord was with us through it all should be enough to give thanks. Let us express our gratitude for all the blessings God bestowed upon our lives in 2023.

Looking back is essential so we avoid making some of the same mistakes we made in the previous year. So, what do we do with what lies ahead of us? A brand-new year is beginning. Do we continue the same paths that we trod on in 2023? Do we make more New Year resolutions and break all of them in the next few hours, days, or weeks? How could we be different? How can we make 2024 a better and more productive life by spreading Christ Jesus's gospel to the world's lost souls?

In this new year that God has bestowed upon us, we must move in a different direction if we want different results. The question we should ask ourselves as we exit 2023 is where we see ourselves in another year or many years. We cannot expect change to happen if we keep doing the same things as in the previous year or years. Change only happens when we purposely make changes. It might be the way we think that is preventing us from change so we must eradicate old mindsets to embrace the new. Old mentalities and approaches will prevent us from obtaining our promised land. 

We need to shift our way of thinking. Allow ourselves to break out of the box of the mundane and step into the unknown or the new ground God has waiting for us. It could be a change of viewpoint and how we see ourselves. Find out who we are in Christ and move forward with the assurance that Christ Jesus will never leave or forsake us.