\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cBrethren, 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, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.\u201d ~~Philippians 3:13-14 (NAS)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cToday,\u201d my friend said as we had lunch, \u201cI give up on my New Year\u2019s resolutions. I tried as hard as I could, and all I accomplished was failure. I messed up last year and now this year is already a disaster.\u201d The date she declared it over? January 4th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n Do you ever feel this way? That you might as well not even set goals? I know I do. However, I think God wants us to formulate objectives and then reach for them. And, a new year rolling around can be a perfect time to do that. Instead of establishing my own goals, I need to pray and ask the Lord to help me to write down, and then accomplish, the plan He has for me. Putting my intentions down on paper is important\u2014that way I have a tangible reminder.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Starting off with a clean slate is refreshing and energizing. I think taking time to reflect back on the past year can be helpful, not to beat ourselves up with regrets, but to evaluate what we want to accomplish in the next few months. I can take an honest look at areas where I failed and need to improve on, knowing God will forgive me if I ask Him and will also help me to learn and do better with those things today and in the future.<\/p>\n Such hope we have when we have the Lord! Every day, not just January 1st<\/sup>, is a new start with Jesus, our Savior:<\/p>\n \u201cThis I recall to my mind, Therefore I have<\/em> <\/em>hope. The<\/em> <\/em>Lord\u2019s<\/em> <\/em>lovingkindnesses<\/em> <\/em>indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.<\/em> They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.\u201d Lamentations 3:21-23 (NASB)<\/em><\/p>\n His faithfulness is<\/em> great. That\u2019s not to say we should just write off what happened yesterday or in the past year with an attitude of carelessness. Look back but don\u2019t stay there. We can have the assurance that when we do mess up (as we will in our humanness), God is ready and willing to let us start over.<\/p>\n So, ask yourself: what did I learn in 2014 and how can I apply that knowledge to 2015? What have I gotten away from that I need to get back to? If you don\u2019t have a bucket list\u2014make one and get moving! Be encouraged because God has great things ahead for you.<\/p>\n Dear Lord, help me to know what goals you want me to reach for this year and then give me the ability and strength to accomplish them.<\/strong><\/p>\n God\u2019s blessings to you in 2015!<\/p>\n \u00a92015 Tammy Maseberg All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cBrethren, 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, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.\u201d ~~Philippians 3:13-14 (NAS) \u201cToday,\u201d my friend said as we had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-word-from-tammy-maseberg","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions\/341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}