Welcome to a new dawn! It is an enormous divine privilege that we could enter the gates of a New Year. God is fulfilling the prayer of David in our lives, “I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17). Reflecting on the past year, we may have regrets about our mistakes and missteps. We may feel pain about some loses and disappointments. However, we have more than enough reasons to thank God, not only for the excellent moments but also for another opportunity we have with the facility of a brand New Year.
One of the scriptures that would regularly feature in most sermons and exaltations for the New Year is the oracle of the Prophet Isaiah (43:19) “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert”. The promise is powerful indeed, but the question is, “how could we activate and accommodate this divine promise in our lives?”
The answer to the question lies within us; in fact, it depends on our decisions, choices, and dispositions, yes, our mindset. The mind is a very crucial component of your being; it is the place we build our thoughts that could translate to our actions and inactions. There is so much power in the mind because it moderates our physical, moral, spiritual and emotional well-being. You are therefore as good as your mind. A healthy and active mind leads to a healthy and robust life.
You Are In The Middle Of The Old And The New
The passage that accurately explains this section is from the Prophet Isaiah (43:18), “Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old.” Do we not spend so much time and energy considering and dwelling on the old? While we may not ultimately do away with some of the things of the past, they are sometimes unproductive, infertile and ineffectual.
There is a need for us to understand that most of the old and failed solutions we have cannot solve new problems for us. Albert Einstein defines insanity as doing the same old thing all the time and expecting a different result. We often recycle our old attitudes and dispositions instead of dropping them entirely for something new. In the Gospel of Matthew (9:17), our Lord Jesus Christ instructs that we should not pour old wine into a new wineskin. Instead, new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.
At some points in our lives, we find ourselves between the old and the new; consequently, we are left with choice-making. The choices we make in life could either help or hinder us. Our choices could open or close the doors of success in our lives. Our choices come from our decisions, and our decisions are products of our thoughts, and our thoughts are formed in our minds.
Flip Your Mind
Your mind is a battleground, and you win or lose depending on how you fight. What you think is more important than what you are because you are what you think. Your mind can become ineffective when you don’t give it a positive challenge or when you don’t break away from the usual.
Flipping your mind means changing the way you think and consequently your decisions and choices. You are what you thought you should be and if you desire to change your life, you need to change your thought. Flipping your mind in the New Year means changing the way you think and function.
Know yourself: Self-knowledge is the key to success. “Man know thyself,” is as relevant to your life today as it was to those who first heard it from Socrates thousands of years ago. Flip your mind in the New Year from digging around the lives of other people like a “monitoring spirit” to focusing on yourself. Self-knowledge would help you to know your weaknesses, your strengths, and how to become the best version of yourself.
Come out of your comfort zone: Sometimes what makes your mind comfortable can ruin you, but the uncomfortable could transform your life. Flip your mind and stop looking for shortcuts and easy routes remember that out of difficulties heroes emerge. The journey is a significant part of the success story. Without wars, there would be no warriors, and without oppositions, there would be no victories.
Stop snoozing the alarm clock: Why would you set the alarm clock for 6.am only to keep snoozing it till 6:30 am or even 7.am? Snoozing is another name for procrastination. Why would you leave for tomorrow something you could do today? Flip your mind and do things differently with your time in the New Year. Rise and walk the talk. It is not enough to say what you would accomplish in the New Year; it is not enough to make those positive declarations, “my year of superabundance,” “my year of mega promotion,” etc. while you do nothing. God would only help those who walk in wisdom (Prov. 28:26).
Beware of time wasters: Whatever you give your attention takes your attention and runs your life. Would you still spend your productive time looking at people’s pictures, comments, and likes on social media while your life runs out? Some people are even making lots of money from your views, subscriptions, and followings. Flip your mind about social media, flip your mind about television, flip your mind about friends who cannot make you grow, flip your mind about how you use your mobile phones and its distractions.
What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Grab your phone to check who said what and to who? Well, you need to flip your mind. Your phone did not keep you through the night, God did. Flip your mind, check up on God first before checking up your phone. Spend more time with God in the New Year, and you will see the difference that would make in your life. St. John (15:5) says, cut off from Him you can do nothing!
Have a plan and follow your plan: When you fail to plan you have planned to fail. Planning is very vital for any important step you need to take in life. Learn from your creator He is a master planner (Jer. 29:11). Flip your mind and make a followable plan for the New Year. What are your long- and short-term goals? You can’t do everything (you are not God), start with one thing get it done and dusted and take up another. Do not be afraid of making mistakes; they often sharpen you.
Your best is yet to come: Do not limit yourself, you can go higher than where you are now. You have not concluded your best business contract; you have not sung your best song, you have not done your best dance, you have not presented your best paper, you are yet to write your best speech! Don’t limit yourself, don’t give up. Your best is still loading!
Moving Forward!
The hard but the unassailably only way to make this Year New is to flip your mind. The possibly new reality in the year would be you! If you don’t flip your mind, you will remain the old person of the past year and progress would be miles away from you. Flip your mind, God’s grace is enough for you (2 Cor. 12:9), and He would be with you everywhere you go if you remain strong and courageous (Joshua 1:9). May the awesome blessings of God in the Book of Psalms (91:14-16) abide with you throughout the New Year.
Have a mind flipping New Year. Happy New Year!
Fr. Bonnie.