As the year draws to a close, the question usually is “how can I make the next year better?” What we usually forget is that we need to finish the current year strong first. We learned that the first step in offering the gift of closure at the end of the closing year is to dedicate everything to God. This includes trials and forgiving even those who don’t request it. Because if you don’t, you will surely collapse under its weight. Additionally, a second step in the process of dedicating everything to God is to not only commit your trials but also commit your...

TROPHIES

Polishing your trophies has the tempting danger of inflating your ego. Sure, we get to reap the rewards of hard work or exceptional effort but we can get so caught up in what has been accomplished that we fail to move on. Sooner or later, someone will top our achievements, our records will be broken, or someone more talented will overshadow us. Then what?

Trophies are nice, but do exactly as the Apostle Paul advised:

“One thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you”
(Phil. 3:13-15).

You must have an attitude that reaches forward because that’s where your potential lies. That’s where all God’s untapped abilities are that are yet to be realized, and His promises that are yet to be apprehended: in your focus on potential yet to be realized.

For God to write a new chapter on our lives, we must dedicate everything to Him–including both our trials and our trophies. Yield your trials, trophies and one more thing:

TAKE THE LESSONS LEARNED

“We must pay more careful attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” (Heb. 2:1)

It’s so easy to drift away from what we have learned, but pay attention! Worse than going through a trial is to not learning anything from it. We all make mistakes, that’s inevitable, but make sure that you take the lessons learned and improve your life! God’s goal for our lives is not comfort, it’s that we develop character. It’s not for leisure; it’s that we develop His likeness. God will be carving away things in our lives and we need to cooperate with Him. Extract the gem from your trials. Then allow it to develop a likeness and character depth.

The Bible says that God “created us in His image” and it will take a lifetime to take away the things that are not His image. And we get to cooperate with Him because He’s changing us from glory to glory.