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Yesterday at church, our preacher spoke about new beginnings. I'm sure this is a common theme about this time of year. I love new beginnings! I truly believe God loves new beginnings! Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3:22-23 "Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." God would not have sent Jesus to this world, if He didn't believe in new beginnings. John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." Peter would have never stood in front of the crowd and preached as he did , if God didn't believe in new beginnings. Acts 2: 37-39 " When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call." Before I could go off thinking about all the things I wanted to change in the next year, I heard one more thing! I heard our preacher say this year he was going to make New Year Determinations. That got me to wondering what the difference would be between a resolution and a determination. Using my online dictionary, I discovered that the words are synonyms. Here are the definitions I found: resolution The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination. determination The act of making or arriving at a decision. The decision reached. Firmness of purpose; resolve; A fixed intention or resolution. Wow! I never thought of these words together! Maybe over the years I have become to think of New Year resolutions as trivial. I know I have made a lot of them and never even followed through with the thought. Maybe I tried to change too many things about myself at one time and became discouraged, so didn't even change one thing! Just maybe, I have been too lazy to do the work that would produce the change. Ouch! That hurt to write! Here's where I usually start feeling depressed and decide that it's not worth it to make resolutions. But you see this year I have changed, I have grown spiritually, I have worked on those sins, like procrastination, I have grown a little more mature. Not by myself, but with the great, awesome God who loves new beginnings. So, this year I'm going to make New Year Determinations. I'm going to make them all year long, not just January first. I'm going to cover them with prayer and share them with an accountability partner. Then, I'm going to step aside and let God have control. He does a much better job of things! Will you come join me on this journey?
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