I love December! It has my birthday and my wife’s birthday—born 3 hours apart in the same year, btw. It has our wedding anniversary. And, of course, most important of all, it has CHRISTMAS. But there’s another part of my December—a life-transforming part–that I want to share with you here. My hope is that you make it part of YOUR DECEMBER, too.
A few blogs back I encouraged you to TAKE INVENTORY of every part of your life THIS MONTH and build a “CHANGE RAMP” to the new year. To cast a concise vision for 2021 in December that can easily be turned into an action plan when January hits. To make sure your CHANGE RAMP to 2021 is SO BIG that it defies human logic because the ONLY way it can be reached is if it is of God.
This is the time in December when I start work on my CHANGE RAMP to the new year and I hope you join me.
Choosing the FIRST STEP in that process this year is simple: Identify how living in 2020’s QUARANTINE CULTURE impacted my life.
My thoughts on that front quickly turned to the notion of REFUGE—where I went when the storms of life crashed my pad. After being LOCKED DOWN with God, I sought him out with a healthy sense of reality that I was not in charge of anything except trusting him.
That positive outcome for me in 2020 is decidedly different—THANK GOD–from early in my faith walk when I ran away from storms to bunker in a mansion.
So my takeaway learning from 2020 is that God wants us to trust him 100% for refuge and then step out into the sunlight stronger than we were before and eager to tell everyone within earshot how “God saved me again.”
YOUR “ASSIGNMENT”
The first step in building your CHANGE RAMP to 2021:
- Identify the challenges—CV19 or others–you faced in 2020.
- Determine how God helped you through those challenges.
- Estimate how your faith grew or did not grow this past year.
- Praise God for how he “showed up” during the COVID year.
- Use your praise for God this past year to encourage others.
I ask God to help me remember that HE is my one and only refuge. That anything else will be ineffective. That the allure of other escape routes is a LIE.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Will you accept my challenge to take the FIRST STEP (see above) in building your CHANGE RAMP to 2021?
WHAT’S STEP TWO?
Evaluating your commitment to the habits of a discipline traveling the life-long road to spiritual maturity—Bible/Quiet Time; Prayer; Fellowship; Tithing; and Service.
Stay tuned for that!
“God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.” Psalm 46:1
