Deuteronomy 10:12, Deuteronomy 6:4–9, Deuteronomy 30:11–16 (read online ⧉)
Tomorrow is not just another day. It could be, but why let it be? Why let the last year define you?
Why allow the trials and tribulations to weigh you down? As we look at the coming year, there is plenty that could be feared. There are rumors of wars and threats of civil war. There are diseases. There is mindless killing. There are bad chemicals in many things we eat and drink and the air we breathe.
For those who look back and think how great the year was, who is to say the year ahead will be so good? What would make the coming year as good or better than the year just passed?
No matter what, something has (or many somethings have) shaped the us that we “see” today. Good and bad shape us. Good and bad can also define us. Should they?
Oddly enough, the good in our past can be as harmful to our future as the bad. If something is held onto too tightly, it can cripple our future. An entrepreneur obsessed with the success of a past venture can often be as hobbled as the entrepreneur obsessed with the latest failure.
This is not to say forget. It is more a matter of letting the past define your future. Look at the New Year as the next better step. The New Year has untapped potential and optimism. The New Year also has untapped potential pitfalls and sorrows.
The Israelites about to enter the Promised Land had the same potentials ahead of them.
1) As you enter the New Year, are you looking for the Promised Land or the Land of Giants (see Numbers 13:31–14:2 ⧉)? After reading the above passages in Deuteronomy, what strength do you have?
2) How do you think valleys (failures, pain, loss, etc.) and mountains (success, happiness, etc.) could trap a person in the past? Have you ever had that experience?
3) What is a spiritual growth resolution you could make for the New Year, even a small one?