The New Year is more than just a marking of time—or at least it can be. Many people see it as an opportunity to make a new start in some area of their lives.

Perhaps it’s our new calendars with their fresh images or our new diaries and weekly planners with their unspoiled pages. Perhaps it’s the knowledge that some of the people closest to us and millions of others around the world are making New Year’s resolutions and setting their sights higher. We don’t want to be outdone or left behind. Call it what you will—a personal wake-up call, a jolt to our collective conscience, or peer pressure—it’s effective … at least for a few days. We all know how that goes.

This year can be different. This year, your New Year’s resolutions can be the start of wonderful lasting changes, especially if you include God in your plans and work with Him. If your motivation is to please Him most of all, then you can be sure that He is more than happy to help you make any necessary changes. 1 In the process, because He loves you and wants you to be happy, He will also bring other good things your way in answer to your spoken and unspoken prayers. That He has promised! “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” 2

And don’t let it stop with you. Find out what changes others you care about would like to make, and get behind them. Now that’s rewarding!

From all of us at Activated, may God bless you and may the coming year be your happiest and best yet.

  1. 1 John 5:14–15
  2. Psalm 37:4