Who Do You See In The Mirror?

When you look into your mirror, who do you see? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What have you done and what can you do? Do you really know who you have been in the last 12 months? If you don’t know who you have been, you are not likely to be any better in future. Why? Becoming better starts from knowing who we are. If we don’t know our current strengths and weaknesses, how can we take steps to improve? This is why many people continue to struggle in the same areas of weaknesses day after day and year after year.

Where did you achieve best results in the past year? Focus on this area(s) Yes, there is a place for striving to do things we have not attempted in the past but we cannot continue to put our best efforts in our worst areas. Our best results come from finding the areas of our strength and putting our best effort in those areas. I am certainly not who I used to be. People who knew me a decade ago and who still know me today will testify to this. I hope to continue changing; but I will only become my best by putting my best efforts in my areas of best results.

Before you begin life in the new year, please take a moment to reflect on the person you have been as well as what mattered most to you in the past twelve months. Did you notice any positive change between the person you were two years ago and the person you have been in the past one year? Did you notice improvements in your weaknesses? Did you develop new interests? Are you satisfied with your current level of accomplishment? Are you grieving over the loss of a job, friend or position? Please understand that the person you have been in the last 12 months can stand in the way of the person you need to be in the next 12 months. A wise man said "To wear a new shoes, you must first remove the old one" Before you crossover to the New Year, be sure to get rid of old habits and allow the person you have been in 2012 transform into a better you in 2013. To experience a new you, you must first get rid of the old you. 

Let go of the failures, mistakes, pains, regrets, guilt, bitterness as well as current successes. Yes, satisfaction with our current successes can also keep us from attempting greater things. It is particularly important that you let go of people who are not helping you move forward in order to bring in new important people into your life. There may be a few key people that are meant to be with you for life and even then it is important to be sure you are all growing together. To hold on to people who are not advancing with you or people whose tenures in your life are over is to keep yourself tied to the past. The people God used to help you in the past may not be the same people God will use in future. I am speaking from experience. While maintaining quality relationships from the past and appreciating those God has used to bring me to where I am, I am also learning to give attention to the important people God put in my life here and now. 

Before diving into the new year, sit down and do a personal evaluation of yourself and decide that the person you have been in the past year will not stand in the way of the person you can be in the coming year. 

Prayer: Lord, help me to know who I am and who you assigned to help me become the person you want me to be in the coming year, in Jesus name.

Follow The One Who Knows The Way

Before the 1988 Olympics began, a television program featured a group of blind skiers being trained for slalom (zigzag) skiing. These blind skiers were paired with sighted skiers, and taught how to make right and left turns. When they mastered this procedure, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them shouting, "Left!" and "Right!" As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line. Everyone applauded. What was their secret? The sighted skier’s word (Haddon Robinson).

That is the way it is with us and God. We are in reality blind as to what course to take in life. We must rely solely on the Word of the One who is truly sighted--God Himself. God guides us by his word. He said “you will hear a voice behind you telling you turn to the left and turn to the right” Isa 30:21. God has promised to guide all his children in this wonderland we call world. Are you listening and following the one who knows the way or are you wondering in the maze? Do you live by divine direction or do you live by trial and error? Do you know how to hear and recognize his voice or do you base all your decisions on what you know or feel?

There’s good news: we can hear God through his word. the word of God is like a lamp that guides us in the dark path. Hearing God through his word is more than reading or reciting the scriptures. It is more than listening to sermons or putting the bible under your pillow at night.

Hearing God through his word happens when we get personal with the word. Live in the word and let the word live in you. It is only by so doing that we contact the spirit and voice of God which is beyond the ink and paper.

You will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way. Follow it, whether it turns to the right or to the left." (Isaiah 30:21)