NEW YEAR, NEW LIFE!

Oh yes, how many times have your heard or read this very slogan? How many times did you say it yourself but nothing has changed? Year in, year out, your problems are the same; you are the same; no excitement, no newness, no improvement!
So much so that we are living the very last days of 2008 and you don’t dare to say 2009 will be the year of your life. You said it before, you applied all your efforts for it to happen, you have used positive mind before any hard circumstances with no avail.
You tried and tried and maybe you are even thinking that happiness is not for you.
Let me tell you something: I have been there! I have lived in the world of frustration and disappointment not so much towards others but towards myself because I could not see happening what I so much wanted.
I had in mind that all conquests were always for my friends and family members and I was just surviving until I learned and realized that it was because I was trying by myself and I was not strong enough to endure the hardships of life. Thus failure was my daily bread.
Do you identify yourself with this? Do you want to know what was the turning point for a new blessed year in my life?
It happened in 1988. I discovered that the only One who can make things new and afresh is my Creature and then I committed all my plans, days, projects to His management.
Who else around you can assuredly make this promise? “ Look, I am making everything new” And then he said to me “ Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true” (Rev 21:5)
The challenge is set upon you: allow Him to take you through newness in 2009 and by the year-end you will only have victories to count for.
Remember, any change around you has to start from the inside. All the best for 2009!

Festive Seasons

It is just unbelievable that 2009 is around the corner! We planned so much, we worked so hard and the time went by quickly we have barely realized it.
Now the Festive Seasons are coming and plans and more plans: Family gatherings, lunch and dinners with clients and co-workers, gifts, cards, celebrations. The diary has never looked so busy as for these last days of the year!
In the midst of so many commitments and responsibilities we tend to loose track of our own needs and, without even noticing, we do everything that will please someone else.
You do not have time for your daily activities, you do not have time to organize your house, and you do not have time to do any shop for yourself. You are mostly focus on what is going on around you and at the end of each day you are so tired, stressed even not knowing why.
This might be a very dear season for you but you are not enjoying the least of it, consumed with so much formality. Stop wandering and make the most out of it.
First of all, what is really important for you, to greet this and that, to give gifts and cards or to show your family members and friends how important they are an that you care for them?
A gift may express some goodness but actions will speak louder. Why not to try something different this year?
Instead of being worn out with physical worries about gifts, cards and celebrations, keep busy with people’s needs and that might be a simple call, a letter of forgiveness, a word of encouragement, a smile, an afternoon tea with only one old friend whom you know is struggling with a problem and has no one else to confide with.
Once Jesus spoke these words to a very busy woman “Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42). Let His words echo in your heart today and make a time for those who really need you and do not forget, make a time for Jesus.