There are many Christians who are struggling with different kinds of problems and challenges, even as we prepare to enter into a new year.

No matter what you may be going through right now, one thing however is certain: God’s promises in His written word to you as a Christian does not ever fail or change.

It is your surest guarantee in overcoming whatsoever the enemy may have in stock for you in the new year.

Even though the problems and issues that you’re facing daily may be different from others’; God’s written word however gives you the stability that you need to be able to stand through every storm of life.

His word is always there to help you in confronting and overcoming those issues of your life. We get wisdom and insights by meditating on those precious promises in His word, for us to be able to walk in constant victory.

The Psalmist showed us how to do this when he wrote:

“Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭37:4-5‬ ‭NASB‬‬

These words of David are very important for every believer in Christ Jesus who’s entering into the new year with the challenges of life.

When you’re delighting yourself in the Lord, you are positioning yourself to inherit every promise in His word that you’re holding on to by faith in Him to do what it says.

As you delight yourself in the things of the Lord, He gives us a desire for the things of His kingdom.

You then will stop being self-centered, as the Holy Spirit begins to move your desires, motives and ambitions in life to become Christ-centered.

That means you must recognize that the desire for the things of the kingdom of God, are much more profitable to you than your own personal desires and ambitions in life.

In other words, you must decrease for Christ to increase in all of your endeavors in the new year (John 12:24).

God’s word in your heart yields interest!

One of the best ways to learn how to delight in the Lord, is by ministering to Him regularly as a way of life.

When you cultivate the habit of ministering to the Lord, you are opening your spirit-man up for the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you.

Even as we’re approaching the new year, there are some Christians who are putting out fleeces on the Lord; concerning the things that they are waiting on God for in the new year.

Others are double guessing the ways and directions that God may be leading them to take in the new year concerning certain important decisions of their lives.

Some are even going from one Church gathering to another, as they are struggling to get a purposeful word from the Lord for their lives.

No matter what you may be confronting right now, God’s written word gives you a guarantee that can never fade away.

His written word to us is like the money that’s deposited into a bank account. As long as the money is there, it generates interest that’s being credited into that bank account.

You do not need to worry about the money being missing, because you do know that it is there for you to use at any time.

God’s word in our hearts is like that money deposited into the bank account. Every day the money is there you get interest being credited to that account.

Every day we are meditating on God’s word, our spiritual account with God is being credited also (Matthew 25:14-30).

That is why it is important to meditate daily on the promises of God for your life.

Practicing His presence!

In Acts chapter 13 the Bible says of the teachers and prophets, who were gathered in Antioch together with Paul and Silas that:

“While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭13:2‬ ‭NASB‬‬

The Holy Spirit spoke to them as they delighted themselves in the Lord by ministering to Him in fasting and prayer.

That means they declared a fast for the purpose of seeking the face of the Lord God, while having fellowship and communion with Him.

There are some who are busy right now as they’re seeking a word from God to them for the new year.

As believers in Christ Jesus, we must be very careful about this. It is the easiest way for Christians to get deceived by the enemy.

The enemy knows how to falsify anything that is of God, so as to deceive God’s people (2 Corinthians 11:14).

It’s evidently clear here that these teachers and prophets were not seeking a word or direction from God concerning Paul and Silas.

They were just fasting and praying purely for spiritual self-edification as they were ministering to the Lord.

But as they were doing this, the Lord spoke directly to them about His Own plan for the group.

Apart from fasting, we can also praise and worship God as we’re ministering to Him.

It is not for us to tell God, how we want Him to lead us in the new year.

It’s important to first acknowledge that He is Lord over all of our affairs in life. A surrendered life to Jesus yields completely to His Spirit in all things.

By allowing Him to lead the way into the new year, you are acknowledging that He is indeed the Lord of your life.

Be led by the inner witness.

God will always lead you through His written word (the Holy Bible), and the inward guidance of His Holy Spirit Who’s living in you.

The Holy Spirit is not in your head, and He has nothing to do with the thoughts that are going on within your mind. He will lead and guide you through an inner witness within your born-again spirit man.

He will show up as a light over the dark issues of your heart, about the decisions that you need to make.

That inner light or witness from God is there to guide you, so that you will not have to follow the thoughts from your unrenewed mind.

He will lead and guide you to follow what the Holy Spirit is revealing to you to be doing about your particular situation from the inner man.

Sometimes it may seem silly or stupid to the unrenewed mind to do what the inner witness is leading you into (1 Corinthians 1:27).

But if you will follow through to obey that inner witness, you will discover that the most precious things in life are often found in the despicable things of our lives.

Oftentimes it is the very people that had been despised or neglected by us, who may end up becoming the answer from God to us.

That’s why it is important to live in love with all men.

The Holy Spirit resides in our hearts, from where He witnesses to us through the human spirit. He will never minister to you through your unrenewed mind.

Our spirit man is born of God at the time when we got born again. The spirit man knows and recognizes the voice of the Holy Spirit to us because we are born of God.

You are not to be listening to the voice of the enemy, because you had been created in the image of God when you got born-again.

Commit your way to the Lord.

The old method of thinking and reacting to the matters of this world becomes dead, when you realize that you were created in the image of God.

This is why your new year will be glorious, because this spiritual truth changes everything in your life.

When you begin to delight yourself in the Lord, by putting away everything that hinders you from paying attention to the voice of the Lord; you are actually creating an atmosphere for Him to lead the way for you into the new year. He will guide you through it to the very end and afterward.

The Psalmist continued by saying:

“Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭37:5‬ ‭NASB‬‬

As you delight yourself in the Lord and cultivate the habit of practicing His presence by ministering to Him; your next step is to commit your way (action of faith) into His hand.

It’s important to note here that committing to something is a completed single action of faith. It is not a process or a developmental plan of action into something new. It is a resolute and complete decision that has to be made.

Oftentimes I had been in church meetings where all that ever takes place, is the rededication of lives during altar calls. No soul is being saved or transformed, because the folks coming forward all the time for rededication; has not been made to realize that all they needed to do is to make a commitment to follow the Lord.

Rededication alone will never make a Christian fruitful, until that action of faith is followed up with a resolute and complete decision of commitment to the Lord.

Commitment is a heart decision that requires our act of faith before God. We must know what we are committing to, before we make the decision to commit. Otherwise, it will not be effective.

The Psalmist made it clear here that we must commit our way to the Lord. This includes the problems and the decisions, which had been made before about those problems to the Lord.

This is your first step in allowing the Lord to guide you through the year.

The amplified translation of the Bible explains what it means to commit to the Lord even better. It says:

“Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭37:5‬ ‭AMPC‬‬

In other words when you’re committing your way to the Lord, you are rolling over or reposing each one of those issues of your life on Him.

When we roll anything unto Jesus, He’s already got our loads of care. He does not expect us to worry about them anymore.

Stay committed and worry no more.

That sometimes is not an easy task for many, because they never can quit worrying when Jesus said not to worry about anything:

“So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6:34‬ ‭AMPC‬‬

We are called into a faith filled lifestyle as born-again Christians. There is no worrying in the kingdom of God.

When we delight ourselves in seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33); all worrying will go away because His voice will come to us as an inner witness, to take care of the worrying part.

Trust in the Lord!

The second part of our pathway into victory is one that has nothing to do with our actions, but everything to do with our attitude towards the situation in front of you – “Trust also in Him” (Psalm 37:5).

Trusting in the Lord is an attitude mentality, towards the things of the Kingdom of God which is continuous.

After you had made a commitment to the Lord, you do not go on committing to Him anymore. Commitment is a completed action of faith in God.

You just need to begin cultivating the attitude of trusting in Him to do what He has promised you.

The scriptures say again:

“You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. So, trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭26:3-4‬ ‭AMPC‬‬

The Lord will guard or umpire over your heart, after you have committed your way into His hand and you’re trusting in Him, to lead you through whatever may be ahead for you in the new year.

His peace will guard your heart decisions in every way.

Watch Him do it!

The final part according to the Psalmist in chapter 37 verse 5 gives us an assurance that “God will do it”.

In some other translation (like the AMPC) this scripture text suggests a continuous action in progress by God. It says: “He will bring it to pass”,

In other words, if God is bringing something to pass for us, we are to stop worrying about it and start trusting in Him for it instead.

When we trust God for anything, our attitude shall be of thanksgiving with praise and worship to Him.

The consequences of doing this is:

“And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sorts that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:7‬ ‭AMPC‬‬

The peace of God will begin to guard and direct your pathway, as you continue to minister before the Lord.

One of the greatest hindrances of receiving God’s answer to prayers, is that Christians are always trying to work out how God should answer their prayers.

You cannot play the role of God for Him in your life. He is either the Lord of your life or He is not.

God is never committed to answering our prayers, in the way that we think He should.

So, stop trying to work it out or figure things out in your mind.

When you are trying to work things out by yourself, you are slipping into the territory of the enemy, as your mindset and spirit man will be triggered to start working against you.

This kind of mindset or attitude makes it difficult for you to receive whatever God is working out on your behalf in answering your prayer.

That’s why Paul encourages us again:

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭12:2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Renewing your mind in the promises of God, helps you to cultivate the positive attitude towards what God is doing to answer your prayer.

Stop making up stuffs in your mind and through your attitude before God.

Learn to give thanks to God instead.

Whenever the enemy is trying to make you figure out stuff in your mind and in your attitude; you must begin to acknowledge what God is doing on your behalf in the realm of the spirit.

You can do this by giving Him thanks for what He had done in the past, for what He is doing right now and what He will do. Giving thanks to God shuts the enemy’s mouth.

When you acknowledge God in this way, a flood light is opened up into your heart, helping you to trust in Him because you’ve acknowledged His faithfulness to you.

When you do, this God will start directing your pathway in the new year and make your Christian life much more glorious than you ever thought it will be.

HAVE A GLORIOUS NEW YEAR!