One Great Thing About The New Year

Happy new year to you friends!

I hope you had a great festive season with family and friends. I also hope you got a time to rest, recharge and reflect. I don’t know about you but I am so excited for 2022. I know God has amazing things in store.

One great thing about the New Year is the prospect of something new. New beginnings, new opportunities, new doors and so on. Everything is new, new, new

But I won’t be talking about that today. I want to focus on something else.

Another great thing about a new year is the second chance we get to either make things right, to do things the right way, finish a project, repair broken bridges in a relationship, to correct some mistakes made in the previous year, and the list goes on. Whatever that thing is a new year brings with it a second chance to try again.

And this is important to know because a lot of people carry shame, guilt, anxiety, fear and so many other negative things from the past year which has a definite impact on the current year. Those people end up believing that the New Year has nothing different to offer them.

If you are one of those people I want to encourage you that the God we serve is the God of second chances. No matter how bad you have messed up He wants to give you a second chance. Take Jonah for example.

God called him to go preach to the people of Nineveh but he ran away from doing what God told him to do. But instead of disowning him or punishing him, God gave him a second chance to do the right thing,

“Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you. This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.”

Jonah 3:1-3

The Lord spoke to Jonah a second time and instead of running away like before Jonah grabbed the opportunity to do it right. And because he did Nineveh was saved from God’s punishment.

I also think of Peter who denied the Lord three times. One would think he blew it for good but Jesus gave him a second chance.

We serve a God of second chances. So as we are now in 2022 don’t let the mistakes and failures of 2021 stop you from having a great year. Take the guilt, shame, fear and anxiety you are carrying to the Lord’s feet. He has a second chance waiting for you.

Bless you friends

The truth about failure

 

How do we respond to failure?

What kind of mindset do we adopt after we fail?

How we respond and the kind of mindset we should have when failure comes is so important

if we are going to grow and learn.

There is a train of thought out there that goes along the lines of, failing makes you a failure.

But is that true? Do our failures make us failures?

No it is not true. As long as we live on this earth we will have to deal with failure,

we will make mistakes, but those things do not need to dictate who we are as people or

what we are going to accomplish.

 

One of the most important questions we need to ask is, how does Jesus see us even though we

fail and make mistakes?

For the answer to that question we are going to look at Peter.

As you know he was a disciple of the Lord and loved him much. But one day before Jesus was

to be crucified, Peter was told he would deny the Lord.

Peter obviously denied it and declared his devotion and that he was ready to die with the Lord.

But as we all know Peter denied the Lord. He messed up big time. He failed Jesus and it seemed

like all was lost. How can anyone bounce back from that?

Imagine the headline in the newspapers the next day,

PETER DENIES JESUS!!

 

But let’s focus our attention on an interesting passage of scripture,

 

“Simon, Simon, satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you,

Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Luke 22:31

 

Jesus knew Peter would deny Him!

But instead of abandoning him or washing His hands of him, Jesus prayed for him and encouraged him.

Peter’s failure did not change the way Jesus saw him. It did not change the Lord’s plans for his life.

And this is important for us to understand. Even when you fail and make mistakes the Lord is with you.

He hasn’t abandoned or disowned you. Failure doesn’t mean the end of you.

It wasn’t the end of Peter.

 

It seemed like Peter’s story was over when he failed but we all know how powerfully he was used

in the creation of the early church. He was instrumental in the building of it.

And that’s how good the Lord is. Don’t allow your failures and mistakes to stop you in your tracks.

We are to grow and learn from our failures but never to stop and die.

Jesus has amazing things in store for you in the midst of failures. So because you are a son and daughter

of God you are not a failure but a victor and that’s the best news! 

 

On one last note, if you would like to get a copy of my devotional, click here. 

Blessings to you friends!

 

Rolain

 

Don’t let your past be a stumbling block.

““But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I’ve heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.”

But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel.”

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭9:13-15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

 

Before the Lord appeared to Saul he had done some terrible things. He was killing and imprisoning God’s people and who knows what else. But despite all those things the Lord had a plan for his life. Yes Paul did some crazy things in the past but the Lord had a new future for him. Paul’s past didn’t stop the Lord from using him mightily.

If you have had an unpleasant past know that it doesn’t have to determine what your future is going to be like. The Lord has a wonderful future in store for you.

But here lies the challenge: Can we let go of the past?

The enemy wants us to hold on to it. That’s one of the strategies he uses to derail us.

There was a time the past was a reference point for everything I did. When new opportunities came I looked at them through the lens of the past. “I can’t do that because of my past” were the consistent thoughts I was having. But thanks to the Lord who was patient with me and changed all that.

Stop letting the past determine your future. The Lord has amazing things in store for you despite your past. No matter how dark your past has been, the Lord wants you. He wants to give you a second chance. Like Paul, will you say yes to Him?

Remember, there is no sin that is too much for God. No matter what you have done, there is forgiveness and grace. Don’t let the past keep haunting you. There is healing, forgiveness, grace and second chances in the name of Jesus.

Say yes to Him today!

Bless you friends

Rolain