“Happy New Year”! How often we are greeted with that greeting. We are told “to” but not “How to.” Here are three principles that will help the person who employs them to have a Happy New Year!
Number One: We must have a “Kingdom mindset.” Matthew 6:22 tells us that our eyes are the “lamps” for our bodies. A pure eye allows sunshine into our souls. Stay positive. See what God has done, and is doing for us and through us. Don’t allow your life to be governed by negative thoughts and/or deeds. Stay away from negative people. They are poison to the soul. When you can’t isolate yourself from negative people, you can always insulate yourself with the living, covering, Word of God. “Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me” (Psalm 119:98)
Number Two: We must “settle the God matter” in our lives. We can only truly serve one master. As Christians, we cannot vacillate when it comes to things of God. We must say with certainty, as did Joshua: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15 d).
Thirdly: “Get a Kingdom perspective.” Our focus should be the Kingdom of God. (His Kingdom – where the will of God is manifest in the earth realm). We must aim at, and strive after, His Kingdom and His Righteousness, for the fulfillment of our prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” When we really know, I mean really know, that God is in control, that He is sovereign, that He has the preeminence in all things, then it becomes abundantly clear that it isn’t our position, but our disposition that makes us happy. The question then arises, when should we apply these principles to have a “happy new year”? Let the Psalmist give us some spiritual insight: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
There are three hundred and sixty-three more days in 2016. Begin each of them with the acknowledgement that God Is, and walk in Him, and you will have a happy day, and hence, a Happy New Year. Be blessed in 2016. The best is yet to come.
Pastor J. Amos Jones
