8 Priorities That Will Transform Your New Year

by Cary Schmidt, Christian Post Contributor |

Psalms 90:12 "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

The New Year offers us a new opportunity to look forward, put the past behind and chart the course anew. It's a fresh start. Last year is in the books. There's nothing we can do to change it.

The New Year is a chance to examine the regrets—correct the course, and determine not to revisit them twelve months from now. It's a chance to be intentional, to renew your commitment to high-value living. If you're looking back on 2017 and seeing that, somewhere along the way, you drifted off course—spiritually, relationally, financially—I encourage you to consider eight life-shifting priorities in 2018:

Think God's Glory Over Self-Gratification—Self is a tyrannical and disappointing god. The more self has, the less self is satisfied. We were created to live for God's glory. We exist to know Him and make Him known. Nothing is more fulfilling to the human heart than knowing God and glorifying Him in the world.

Think Becoming Over Doing—I'm a list person. Perhaps you are too. But this year God has shown me that my lists don't begin to scratch the surface. I can't get it all done. And through all the transition of my life He has loudly said—"You focus on being. Let me handle the doing!" If we will focus on "becoming," then God will intervene and touch our "doing" that it might have maximum impact. Make sure that your "doing" flows from "becoming"—become who God wants you to become, and He will do through you what He wants done!

Think Stewardship Over Ownership—My life is not my own. You don't own you. This year is not yours to live. It's yours to steward. Your life is a gift from God. It is on loan, and one day you will answer to Him for what you did with "His life." Every day. Every breath. Every moment. Every relationship is His gift to you. You will either approach this year asking, "What do I want ...?" Or you will approach this year asking, "God, what do you want...?"

Read more about the New Year on The Christian Post.