Leave It Behind

Happy New Year!

My sisters, I know that we are a little over two weeks into a brand-new year, but I wanted to give you a new year greeting. Throughout January I’m seeing people for the first time this year, and I love to wish them a happy new year as well.

A new year brings such hope and promise.

Maybe there were some things you left undone from 2017, it’s a new year!

Perhaps there were some relationships that you did not get a chance to mend, it’s a new year!

Unfortunately, those bad habits you vowed to stop doing are still around, it’s a new year!

Whatever you want to do over, makeover, or start over, this is your chance. Of course, we don’t have to wait until a new year to make adjustments in our lives. Yet it seems to be a good place to start.

This year in my church we were issued a challenge to learn a Bible verse a week. I excitedly took the challenge because memorizing Scripture is one discipline that I have loved to do, but over the years I’ve started and stopped so many times. Sometimes, it is easy to get a verse in our hearts by meditating on it over and over again. Through life circumstances, the Holy Spirit will put certain verses on our minds that truly comfort us as we go through trials and tribulations.

I plan to intently search the Word of God for verses or even passages that will help transform my life in 2018. I don’t want to learn the verses, just to have a bunch of Scriptures floating around in my head. No, I want the Bible to transform how I think, act, and speak!

It is not surprising that the first verse I picked out for week one was Philippians 3:13-14. I thought about this verse a lot before the calendar rolled over. Why, because it truly speaks to pressing on in spite of past failures, mistakes, heartaches, and any “unfinished business” in my life.

“13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I love the idea of leaving what is behind and pressing forward to what is ahead. It speaks of hope, and our ultimate goal is to be conformed more and more into the image of Christ, who is our hope.

Ladies, would you like to take this challenge with me, learning at least one verse a week in 2018? Perhaps you have some favorite verses or passages you want to sink deep into your soul. I guarantee you that it will not be time wasted, and you will be drawn into a deeper relationship with our Savior!

So, as we continue into a new year, get into God’s Word, and whatever didn’t get done in 2017, leave it behind!