Happy New Year!!!

With the beginning of every new journey, new season in one's life, new career path, new opportunities, there is a tendency to take stock of our past mistakes or shortcomings.

This past year (2020) certainly brought different challenges with it. How we move forward in this new year (2021) will largely be dependent on how we deal with things in our past.

The Apostle Paul, like most of us, would have liked a "do over". He had a lot from his past that could have held him back. Acts 8:1 (KJV) "And Paul was consenting unto his (Stephen's) death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria...".

Paul was at Stephen's stoning and consented to his death. Recounting his life to Timothy in 1Timothy 1:13, he listed some of his past mistakes. However, what did this great writer of a large portion of the New Testament, and who initially persecuted the church (Acts 9: 1 - 2) do? 

Philippians 3:13 (Amplified) "...but this one thing I do (it is my one aspiration), forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead".  If you notice from the scripture above, Paul's one aspiration was two-fold: 

1. Forgetting the past
2. Pressing forward

Paul asks those who are spiritually mature to have this attitude of mind. Philippians 3:15 (Amplified) "So let those of us who are spiritually mature and full grown have this mind and hold these convictions...".

Dear friends, family and partners, let us leave 2020 where it belongs and move into the new year with great excitement and anticipation. 

What are your expectations for 2021? A friend of mine defined hope as a strong positive expectation of goodness!

Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB) "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope".

Now, if God has no plan or intention of bringing you into despondency or disaster, neither should we allow our minds to dwell on thoughts or things which remind us constantly of them. He wants you moving forward. He wants you achieving new heights with and through Him. He wants you taking over new territories, making progress and moving forward.

So, let us declare together, I have a future, an expectation of goodness in God that does not include disaster or calamity. I fare well in 2021. I lay hold by faith to see the goodness of God throughout this year.