“You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance.” - Psalm 65:11
“I have a good plan for your life, it’s a plan to give you a future and a hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11
Daniel didn’t have a great start to his life. He saw his parents killed by the Babylonians, then he was taken captive and made into a eunuch. But his life’s story reveals the cure for a bad past! (Dan 1:6-20) Daniel made God-honoring decisions and developed great habits that resulted in a great future. Daniel’s decisions and lifestyle influenced his three friends and many others. Let’s have his attitude: ‘It doesn’t seem right and it’s not fair, but I am going to trust God and serve Him anyway.’ (Dan 1:17-20) “As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams… Then the king… found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.”
The key to will-power is want-power.
How much do you want God’s perfect will in your life?
(Dan 1:8) “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s delicacies…” We are free to choose, think, say, and do, but it takes courage to make moral choices in an immoral world!
Eight ‘I Wills’ For a Great Start In 2024
1. I will put God first in all my decision making. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.” (Matt 6:33) This is a matter of priorities. Do you put God first in all things? Daniel did.
2. “I will discipline my body and bring it into subjection.” (1 Cor 9:27) This is where fasting comes in. For powerful results, add fasting to your prayers.
3. I will pray no matter how busy I am! (Dan 6:10) Daniel prayed three times a day. (Prov 3:6) “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” Acknowledging Him makes the difference between being pointed or pointless!
4. I will study His word until something comes alive in my spirit. (2 Tim 2:15) “Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman who is not ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” While training to become a surgeon in Scotland, James Simpson Young volunteered to go to the Crimean War to help wounded soldiers. When he saw how they did operations with no anesthetic and heard the soldiers crying out in pain, he said to himself, “There has to be a better way.” Then one morning when he was reading the Bible he read: “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.” (Gen 2:21) When James read this, he said to himself, "This is the answer!" This led him to pioneer the use of chloroform as an anesthetic. He called it 'Artificial Sleep'.
5. I will be a worshiper in the midst of a worshipping congregation. - Heb 2:12 Amp, Luke 4:16, Heb 10:25
6. I will be a good steward of the resources God has placed in my care. - 1 Tim 6:17-19
7. I will open myself to new relationships. (Gen 12:3) You are the carrier of somebody else’s blessing. If you shut the door to the blessings going out, you also shut the door to the blessings coming in.
8. I will look for something to give thanks for in everything. (1 Thes 5:18) On the same day Mathew Henry was robbed, he wrote in his diary, “Father, I thank you that even though they took my all it wasn’t much! Father, I thank you, that all they took was my money and not my life. Father, I thank you that I was the one that was robbed and not the one doing the robbing.” Be thankful always.
Yours for a Great Start in 2024!
Dr. George Hill,
Founder and President of Victory Churches International
www.victoryint.org