MOVING FORWARD - pastor mike landry

Most people are briefly encouraged with the beginning of a new year. At least for a moment, it seems like you’re given a opportunity to start over again…and get it right this time. New Year’s resolutions are decisions to walk through the open door of a new beginning.

I mean, who doesn’t want to be more disciplined, more relational, more spiritual, more fun, more productive, more wise, and in better shape physically? The New Year seems like an open door to try again.

But the moment you mess up, again, you feel like it’s back to the “same-old, same-old.” It doesn’t matter that you were making progress and were actually more productive than you’ve been in a long time. At the moment we mess up, it just feels like nothing has changed. But, it did change…you were changing…and making progress.

May I make a suggestion? Don’t stop trying just because you hit another Resolution Speed Bump. Those interruptions and momentary lapses happen to every one of us.

In fact, I want to suggest you try something different this year that will help jump start your New Year and move you beyond the first Speed Bump.

Start on your New Year’s resolutions IMMEDIATELY…before the New Year. Go work out at the gym – TODAY. Call that old friend – THIS WEEK. Take 10 minutes and read your Bible TONIGHT. Refuse to order that piece of dessert TODAY. Start those piano lessons BEFORE the new year. Whatever you’ve been planning to start once the first of the year comes, start it a little earlier.

If you try starting now, before the New Year, you will make some progress. And, I can almost guarantee, that you will fail in at least one of those areas before the New Year. But you will have gotten a jump start on the New Year! When the New Year comes, it will give you just enough momentum to get over that Resolution Speed Bump and continue forward much further than ever before.

Come on. Try it. I know you’ve got excuses about why you should wait. But, do you really want to keep getting the same results you’ve gotten every other year? It’s time to jump start the New Year…before the New Year starts.