Look forward, set goals, aim high, make resolutions for the New Year ahead…these are thoughts and things people say at this time of year. But I think about all that God has done in my life over these 40 years…and I cannot attribute these things to goals (although I had and have them), resolutions (although I’ve made them), aiming high (although I wouldn’t live my life any other way). What I want to do and what I want to you encourage you to do entering into the new year…don’t only look forward, you’ll miss the miraculous. You’ll achieve and earn and age, but you’ll limit yourself so much…don’t look forward, look up…

I remember being right out of high school, wondering what to do next, work or military…really my only two options…back then staying in mom’s basement and playing Nintendo all day wasn’t an option like it is today, HA! And then the conversation with my mom over breakfast…, “Go over to the school, ask about grants and available scholarships.” Six weeks later the letter came…we are pleased to notify you that you have been awarded a full scholarship to attend University.

I then squeezed four years into five. (HA) Now what? Find a job, a good job…one that I can stay in and grow in…and so I applied at a big company, interviewed…and was not selected. Back to Suncom (small cellular company where I sold cell phones). A buddy calls me shortly after that, “Come to this engineering open house with me.” Why? I’m not an engineer. I have a business degree. “Just come, I’ll buy you lunch.” Free lunch…ok!

Three interviews later, a job offer comes. Far better than the one I would have received at the other company…16 years later, I’m still with that same company and it’s been wonderful. Got the degree, got the job…now what? Maybe I’ll get rich…naw, better get married (HA)! But who? Then this beauty named April hounds me (HA) for a date! Got the degree, got the job, got the bombshell bride…God says, “I gave all of that to you, now give it back…” Came to the Lord…Madison was born, my champion…then Link, my heart…then C4…I can only imagine what’s yet ahead…

In and throughout all of that…I think back on all of that…and there is NO WAY I can attribute those things to setting goals and making resolutions…looking forward…if that was all then I’m afraid I would have missed out on so very much. I’m not saying don’t live with thought for the future…steer blindly…I’m not saying that…what I want to tell you today is that while the world will tell you to look forward into the New Year…I would rather look up.

Trusting the Lord and allowing Him to fashion my life like His personal project…well, He is a much better Project Manager than me.

So, it’s a simple exhortation, a straight forward and uncomplicated encouragement…in the New Year, going into the year of vision, 2020, don’t look forward only, but also and first…look up.

Colossians 3:1-4. “If then you were raised with Christ (the supernatural heart and person should walk the supernatural path), seek those things which are above (look up), where Christ is, sitting (at peace, in position of authority) at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above (primary talk), not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (what is best for you is the plan God has for you). When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (There’s not a day that Jesus will hesitate to show Himself strong in a life lived for Him)

I couldn’t have written goals for my life to be this amazing. Resolved it to be incredible or worked for it to be this profitable. And I know that now. So yes, I plan for the future, I think of the things of tomorrow, but by living with my eyes up instead of forward, I get to enjoy today that much more.

God cares for you, even more than you care for yourself…trust Him into the New Year, trust Him in your future…and you will also trust Him in your todays. So heavy, so burdened, God would have you hear going into this New Year…

Matthew 6:25-34. “Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Looking forward Joseph would have lost a nation. Looking forward David would have lost a kingdom. Looking forward Peter would have lost his mind. Looking forward Judas did. Looking forward Paul would have missed living one day in his life. Jesus looking forward…you and I would have missed everything. But looking up, placing their hope and mind and loyalty on the eternal God before men, emotion and situation, they all and you all will find the phenomenal. The freakishly superhuman miraculous life that will warrant the greeting in heaven, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”

I encourage you and invite you to not only look forward into this New Year, but also…look up! And then in years to come, when you look back, your life won’t be well lived and over…it will be unexplainable in terms of profit, joy, accomplishment and excellence and will continue to be that way on into eternity.