Looking Forward, Hoping for the Best

For me, 2013 was a great year of big revelations, life-changing decisions, and challenging struggles.

Through it all, I am grateful because I know more about myself than I did before and I have been able to savor good moments with my friends and family.

I learned more about Jesus, as a matter of fact, and I felt more alive when I decided to accept Him into my life as my personal Lord and Savior.

Once and for all, I have been freed. I am free from my insecurities, I am free from my fears, I am free from the anxiety I felt from all the pressure coming from the world and now, more than ever I feel loved.

Not that I wasn't loved before, but now I acknowledge that I am loved and I just feel so blessed and less burdened.

2013 was also the year when I entered college and I am slowly but surely accepting the fact that I will become more 'independent' in a sense that I will be taking more responsibility for myself and also for the people around me.

But I know that I won't be facing the world alone because I know Jesus will be with me through it all because He promised that He will never leave me nor forsake me.

Despite all the circumstances and problems I faced in 2013, I am so grateful that by the grace of God and through faith in Jesus, I was able to overcome the dilemmas, the pressure, the temptations, and every issue that came right at my face.

However, all of that is in the past now and now I am looking forward to 2014 and hoping for the best of this year.

With all the lessons I learned, I would like to face this year with more zeal and passion, not just for my academics or my social life or family matters but also in spending more time in the Word and really immersing myself to understand more about my life in Jesus and how I can apply His Word in practical terms.

I want to be able to live my life for the glory of God every day because I acknowledge the fact that I am nothing without God and the fact that all things are possible with God.

I may just be an ordinary person but I want to offer my life for an extraordinary God so that He can do His extraordinary works in my life. I pray that this may be the desire of your heart today too because our lives will be so meaningful when we live for God.

As Jesus said in the Bible that He came to give us life and that we may have it to the full. I want to walk in righteousness each day and imitate the ways of Jesus so that I will become more like Him each day.

I want my 2014 to center on Jesus and I want to read more of the Bible each day so that I can hold on to the promises that God gave me. I want to pray with an intensity and fervency that Jesus did to the point that I can literally hear the Holy Spirit's voice speaking to my heart especially when someone needs help.

I want to live a life of praise and worship for God the same way that the Spirit-filled men of faith in the Bible did; the same way that David, Job, and Paul, to name a few, rejoiced in God despite their trials and tribulations.

I want to be constantly filled with the joy and peace that only God can give. I want to always be in the presence of God and to experience His love each day.

Some people might think that resolutions are superficial but I believe that when you make these commitments and really persevere to follow them through for the whole year, you will see real changes happen. I think what we need to do is to take baby steps toward changing our lifestyle because these changes won't happen overnight.

We have to set our minds to the process and just keep doing the routine or regimen we have set for ourselves on a particular schedule until it becomes a habit. Continue doing the habit until it develops your character and then you will start to see things from a different perspective.

I believe that for us to really see changes and extraordinary things happen in our lives, we need to first set our focus right. We need to focus on living a life that is pleasing to God and to live under the grace of God.

In various moments of my life, I can say that I have felt God moving in my life but I know He has much more in store for me and for you. So, I have resolved within myself to live for Jesus this year.