New Year, New Goals

Towards the end of last year, God brought it to my attention that even though He was part of my life, I had moved Him towards the edges. Other things and people had become the focus and center of my life and attention. While it wasn't a bad thing for me to lavish attention on my family or serve in my church, when those things become my center of attention, I lose something important.

One of the things that drew my attention to this problem was how emotional I had become. Now, I'm always an emotional person. My husband is the one who is pretty calm and collected, and I'm the one who has roller coaster days. But this was deeper. I was sinking into "down" spells more and more often. I realized that what I was pouring my heart and soul into, I was also expecting to pour heart and soul into me - to fill me and complete me in ways that they are not able to do. I wanted them to do what only God can do and be what only God can be.

Heading into the New Year gives us a chance to re-evaluate what's happening in our lives. It gives us the courage to go back to school or choose a healthier lifestyle or refocus our priorities. Personally, I don't label this a resolution (although it is that as well), but a goal, not just for this year, but for my life. I need God to be the center focal point in my life. I need to know Him better every day. When that happens, everything else will fall into the place that they belong.

After making that decision, I needed to figure out what that was going to look like. It's harder than it looks, because in a lot of ways I was already doing the checklist of things that a Christian does: go to church, join a Bible study, serve in ministry, do personal devotions. So what was I missing? I think it's not necessarily a checklist item, but an attitude change. I decided that I need to be in prayer more - specifically for the things and people who had been my center. If I'm praying for them, I'm aware of their need for God and it puts them in an appropriate place. Also, I'm not a morning devotion person. I don't wake up "bright eyed and bushy tailed". I drag myself into morning. Reading my Bible in the morning is going to guarantee that I get nothing out of it, because I'm not alert enough to soak it in. However, I have started a 365 day devotional book by Beth Moore called "Praying God's Word Day by Day" that I start my morning with. My thought is that it will begin my day with a focus towards God, spur me on to pray first thing in the morning, and hopefully that will turn my focus to God from the very beginning of the day.

Every year I choose a verse to be my verse of the year. This year I chose (or rather God led me to) Hosea 6:3-

 "Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
    his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
    as the spring rains that water the earth.”

I did a study on Hosea by Jennifer Rothschild this past summer, and she said that the word "know" means to have an intimate knowledge. That's what I want. I want to intimately know my Lord. I want to keep pressing forward to know Him more and not get content where I am in my walk. God doesn't play games. If we are pressing on to know Him, He doesn't hide from us. In James it says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." He doesn't keep pulling away getting further away the harder we try to know Him. He draws close to us. That's what I want for 2017. I want to draw closer every day to God until my life is a reflection of Him. I want to recenter my life around Him, because He's the only one who should be in that position. Everything else will fall into the place it ought to be when He has the place He deserves.