3 Ways to Begin the New Year

In this special episode, we look at three ways to begin this new year: remember, repent, and refocus.

Don’t just rush into this new year without looking back, looking forward, and most importantly looking up.

Listen to or download the episode

Show Notes / Additional Resources

1. Remember Life is Short

• James 4:13-14 – Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
• Psalm 89:47 – Remember how short my time is …
• Job 7:7 – Oh, remember that my life is a breath!
• The Bible also says in Ecclesiastes 6:12 that life is like a shadow that only temporarily appears. And in Job 14:2 it says that life is like a flower that flourishes then quickly withers and fades.
• Psalm 144:4 – Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
• Matthew 6:27 – And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
• Psalm 90:9-10, 12 – For all our days … end like a sigh. The years of our life … are soon gone, … So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
  • Today I am 14,245 days old 
• Psalm 39:4 – “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!”
• Ephesians 5:16 – Redeem the time (buy up the time) …

2. Repent

• Do a review of the good, bad, ugly from the past year
• What have you allowed to remain that needs to be repented of or transformed?
• Download the “Oxford Holy Club” questions

3. Refocus

• If you haven’t found something worth dying for, you haven’t found something worth living for.
• Live as if life is short and eternity is long.
• Are we living in light of eternity?
• “Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs.” – Jonathan Edwards
• Leonard Ravenhill (quoting Edwards) – “Oh God, stamp eternity on my eyeballs! … You know if God should stamp eternity or even judgment on our eyeballs, or if you’d like on the fleshy tablets of our hearts, I’m quite convinced we’d be a very very different tribe of people, God’s people, in the world today.”
• “When you’re safe on eternity’s shore will you wish you could live your life o’er? When He asks for the fruit of your labors will you offer Him idle hands?” – Anonymous
• Oh to fully realize the littleness of time and greatness of eternity! – Thomas Chalmers (Scottish minister in late 1700s)

Join the Conversation

Question: What is one way you plan to start this new year well, with Jesus Christ as your focus?

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About NRJohnson

NRJohnson (Nathan Johnson) is a Christian who has an overwhelming passion for Jesus, the Gospel, and Studying God’s Word. He is a writer, teacher, and communicator who helps other believers understand and apply the Bible as they grow and mature in their faith—desiring that they gain greater intimacy with Christ, experience the victorious Christian life, and transform the world through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Read more about him here.

About the Deeper Christian Podcast

Many Christians feel frustrated because they don’t grow spiritually. The Deeper Christian Podcast helps equip Christians to understand the Word of God and cultivate a passionate love for Jesus that turns the world upside down.

Whether you want to learn how to study God’s Word, grow in your faith, cultivate a powerful and effective prayer life, share the Gospel boldly, deepen your intimacy with Jesus, live victoriously, or transform the world through the indwelling life of the Holy Spirit, the Deeper Christian Podcast with NRJohnson (Nathan Johnson) will encourage and equip you to grow spiritually and live a Christ-centered life.