Perseverance in Personal and Spiritual Growth

In this episode of The Crosswalk Devotional, we embrace the fresh start that a new year brings and discuss how to cultivate a positive attitude grounded in faith. As believers, it’s vital to approach each day with a heart of gratitude and a mindset aligned with God's promises. We’ll explore biblical principles that encourage us to renew our minds and set our intentions for the year ahead, focusing on hope, purpose, and resilience.

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Full Transcript Below:

A New Year Attitude

By Aaron D’Anthony Brown

“Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.” - Psalm 90:12, CSB

Finding Your New Year Attitude

After the most wonderful time of the year, comes preparation for the year to come. Needless to say, we often anticipate the new year with excitement. We see the new as an opportunity to do away with the old. We replace diets, habits, relationships. Sometimes we’re not replacing anything, but starting something for the first time. Ideally, we move toward the new year looking forward to better things.

This sounds great, but the issue with the New Year attitude is that anything new eventually wears off. The new car smell fades away. We often lose our initial excitement and all the new we had previously replaced, sadly makes a comeback. There’s a reason so many people fall off of their workout regimens and start eating all the food they previously swore off. The change that we pretended to want was conditional and the results show. They always show. 

However, chances are you have implemented change in your life that lasted for more than a season. You wanted something badly enough that you made some critical changes and the results are still visible today. You realized the need for change and the change became permanent. The truth is, we don’t actually have to wait until next year to improve ourselves. We shouldn’t. Jesus said that our life is, but a “mist,” here today and gone tomorrow (James 4:14). That means our time is limited.

Therefore, we should be asking ourselves an important question. Why wait for the new year to become better, when the chance to change is available today?

Intersecting Faith & Life:

The New Year attitude is one we should strive to hold every day. Scripture tells us that we are called to do away with the “old self,” that the old has been crucified with Christ, and we have been raised to new life (Romans 6:6). With that in mind, here’s how you can start your new year before the new year.

Recognize the need for change.

The average life expectancy for men and women in America is around 80, yet, we all know someone who sadly passed before that time. The unexpected happens everyday. We also know people advancing in age who gave up on dreams and relationships, who have lived to regret their decisions. Why assume our lives are guaranteed to be long? Why assume that tomorrow is always available when we feel the desire to change today? Don’t wait. Some opportunities only come our way once. Not only that, but we only have one life to live.

Seek Wisdom

After you desire change, you’ll want to know what you should change. The world has plenty to say about what is morally correct or incorrect, but as believers, the one we should turn to is God. He wants to help us grow. The Bible says that He will grant wisdom to those who seek it (James 1:5). When we grow wiser we can become more like Christ and thus, we become better people. So if you’re not actively seeking wisdom, ask yourself why not. Even if you don’t realize it, we are always learning from either the people or things in our environment. Make sure God and His kingdom are a part of that learning.

Reward Yourself

Some say that growing is a reward in and of itself, and that’s true. However, giving yourself incentives to continue to make positive change is not unbiblical. Positive affirmation can encourage you to continue when you lose motivation, and if you’re like most people, you will lose motivation. Reward yourself with some material thing and if that doesn’t work, accountability will push you too.

When You Fail, Try Again

Change might be inevitable in life, but it’s also extremely difficult to manage when you’re in charge of it. The key is to not give up. God blesses us for our righteousness and becoming more like Christ is nothing but righteousness. There is not a certain time of year to aspire to be more like Jesus. God wants us to start today, so don’t wait. Start the new year you before you enter the new year.

Further Reading:

Psalm 51:10-11

Jeremiah 29:11

Romans 8:28

James 4:14

Romans 6:6

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