Begin With the End in Mind

We are but 2 months into a new year and it has been a crazy start with inclement weather, illness and everyday life. Nevertheless, a lot of beginning of the year things come to mind.

• Resolutions

• Change

• Vision

• Beginning with the End in Mind

• Reflection

• Commitment

As believers, we need to consider all of these things in devotion to our relationship with Jesus and direction from His Word. As leaders we also need to consider all these in relation to our calling, role, and those we minster to. 

He never changes. His Word never changes.
He never needs to begin again.
His vision is already cast for us in His Word.
Jesus began with the end in mind.

His reflection is a perfect image of God the Father and wants our time of reflecting to reveal Him more fully in our lives.

The year may change, and one day to the next, but He never has changed, never does and never will.  Look to Jesus and begin again…with the end in mind, of course.

At the end of every year, I spend a few days in prayer and in Scripture discerning a word the Lord has for me in the new year. What the Lord puts on my heart becomes a life theme for the year – or at least for a season of time. 

Malachi 3:16-18, a passage known as the Book of Remembrance, was where the Spirit led.

It teaches of God’s faithfulness in faithless times.
It tells of the importance of fearing the Lord and how the Lord listens to those who do fear His name.
It testifies how God remembers the righteous and discerns between those who serve Him and those who do not. 

Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened attentively and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and esteem His name. “And they will be Mine,” says the Lord of armies, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will have compassion for them just as a man has compassion for his own son who serves him.” So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

We need to strive to:

Respond instead of React
This defines your preparedness.

Colossians 4:5-6

“Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” 

Regard instead of Reject
This defines your posture.

 2 Corinthians 10:2-4

“I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I intend to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage battle according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”

Recalibrate instead of Rebut
This defines your perspective.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

“For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Reflect instead of Recoil
This defines your peace.

1 Corinthians 13:12

”For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known.”

Regroup instead of Retreat
This defines your position.

Psalm 37:23-24

“The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
And He delights in his way.
When he falls, he will not be hurled down,
Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.”

Respect and Recognize instead of Refuse and Resist
This defines your power.

Romans 15:13

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Renew instead of Relive
This defines your purpose.

Romans 12:2, Psalm 51:12

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And sustain me with a willing spirit.

“Yesterday is history

Tomorrow is a mystery

Today, live reality!”

History can be an educational reflector but can easily become a distractor. The future can excite or give fright. This all depends on the priority and purpose in which you live today. 

Renovate instead of Repair
This defines your potential.

1 Peter 5:10

 “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

The reality of your last year or your yesterday is defined by the determination of your today towards the devotion to the Lord God Almighty Jesus Christ who holds your tomorrow in His hands.

Psalm 31:14-15

But as for me, I trust in You, Lord,
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in Your hand;
Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.

My prayer for us a ministry and all friends and family is that we trust our Lord and Savior with not only our future…but our today. 

Written by Pastor Michael Miller, board chair.