Coming off of the most challenging, frustrating and obstacle filled year of our family’s life, we have never been as excited to end a year and step into the next. Part of us would love to forget the past year and immediately jump into something new, but we know that if that happened we would be building our future on something unstable and incomplete. We realize that there is a better way, a fuller way to step into the future. As we step into 2016 we are making sure we do first things first.
There are many times in our lives where we find ourselves in places where we want to make a fresh start, make a change in life, or simply become more influential in the world we live in. In our, perhaps overzealous, desire to change things or to step into the next we sometimes unknowingly forget to put first things first. Consider the number of people who want to lose weight, get in shape, stop an addiction, spend more time with family, get closer to God, do something big for God, or even as simple as be a better person that find themselves frustrated, or exhausted from trying really hard, or depressed from feeling like a failure. Without putting first things first, many of our good intentions end up in an incomplete mess.
Our family has decided that we will put first things first. God says in Isaiah 7:9 – “Unless your faith is firm, I can not make you stand firm.” When we look at what we want to change in our lives, what we want to be better in our lives, even what the next place for us to do ministry is, we realize that God can not give us the bigger plans He has for our lives unless we firm up our faith first. I can argue with myself, and God, that if He gave me certain things, then my faith would be stronger, but that isn’t how God works because He knows what is best for me, for our family. He knows how firm my faith needs to be to handle the opportunities He wants to invite me into.
So, we will put first things first – we will firm up our faith. We will remember who we are in Christ. We will invest in knowing and pursuing God at a whole new level. We will not put the pursuit of the bigger plans ahead of our desire to grow in our relationship with God. We will remember, celebrate and share our story of how Jesus rescued us. And when we have firmed our faith up to the strength that is needed for the next plans God has for our lives, He will open that door. We trust Him for that. We know it is our responsibility to be prepared.