The Great Anticipation of a New Year By Tami Heim

Great Anticipation Comes With New Beginnings

A new year often comes with great anticipation and signals significant new beginnings. For some, it marks the continuation of a longer journey of faithfulness and trust. It is an opportunity to build on the wisdom gained from past experiences and lessons learned.

Whatever it means to you, it is good to bring healthy closure to what was so you can stand fully present to the possibilities of what is to come.

Here are some inspiring thoughts to encourage and prepare you for another new year. Let that great anticipation create positive momentum!

Biblical Foundations

A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished. ~ Proverbs 28:20

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. ~ Jeremiah 29: 11-13

And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.”  ~ Luke 12:42-44

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. ~ I Corinthians 2:9-10

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  ~ Hebrews 13:8

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ~ I John 1:9

 Wise Guides

Of all the persons, the Christian should be best prepared for whatever the New Year brings. He has dealt with life at its source. In Christ, he has disposed of a thousand enemies and other men much face alone and unprepared. He can face his tomorrow cheerful and unafraid because yesterday he turned his feet into the ways of peace and today he lives in God. The man who has made God his dwelling place will always have a safe habitation. ~  A. W. Tozer

Faith involves trusting in the future promises of God and waiting for their fulfillment. ~ R.C. Sproul

Nothing paralyzes our lives like the attitude that things can never change. We need to remind ourselves that God can change things. Outlook determines outcome. If we see only the problems, we will be defeated; but if we see the possibilities in the problems, we can have victory ~ Warren Wiersbe

Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God. ~ Jim Elliot

Lord, as the New Year dawns today,

Help me to put my faults away.
Let me be big in little things;
Grant me the joy which friendship brings;
Keep me from selfishness and spite,
Let me be wise to what is right.
A Happy New Year! grant that I
May cause no tear to any eye.
When this new year in time shall end,
Let it be said: “I’ve played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here
And made of it a happy year.”  ~Edgar Guest, “Prayer for the New Year”

The team at Christian Leadership Alliance is feeling great anticipation as 2024 approaches. We pray you will experience, follow, and serve God unprecedentedly as the year unfolds. Together, we are stronger, so know that we are for and with you.

Happy New Year!

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Tami Heim is the president and CEO of Christian Leadership Alliance. She has served in this role since January 2012 and is grateful to witness God at work daily as Alliance leaders stand ready to invest their best in others for his highest purpose and most excellent glory.

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