First of All! Happy New Year. WELCOME TO 2019. We hope this year is more than you wish for. More grace, more growth, more blessings.
It's that time of the year again where we all plan what we want for the year, our goals and wishes for the new year. New Years Resolutions are actually very good at inspiring and gearing us up for the year ahead. There is something about writing things down rather than leaving them in our minds or head. Written words are easy to see and come back to, you can read them out loud and even amend them, you can also tick off and date achievements.
I started writing New Years Resolution (prayers, wishes and wants) in 2017, personally I do not see them as new year resolution, I see them as writing my wishes and prayers down. I write down what I want to achieve and what I would like to change i.e. things I would like to do differently from the last year and things I would like to continue. I have tried many ways of writing my wishes and prayers for example, in 2017 I wrote a list for myself, my family and ministry. In 2018 I wrote a single list. This year I wrote a list with titles or you could call it heading i.e. Personal, Family, Friends, Relationship, Ministry/Calling and Church. This made me have a clearer idea of what I wanted and what my prayers and wishes were for each heading, and the year as a whole.
So here are 3 tips for writing your wishes, wants and prayers for the year;
God's Will
Always remember the will of God is paramount. It's as simple as that. Write it down, put it in the back of your mind. Each year, I always write a statement about how much I trust and have faith in God's plan and will for me. The will of God is the best and the will of God is what matters. One of my prayer for this year is to love God and his will so as to accept God's best and will for me.
Your kingdom come Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10
Be Realistic
Be Serious. Don't just write down anything, if you write down anything, especially unrealistic goals and wishes, you will be in for a surprise. An unrealistic plan is no goal. When you are praying for something or telling God your heart desires, you need to be sure of what you want because God will not do what will not benefit you. In short, Be Real With Yourself. Don't just write so many things, pick important things. If you had a prayer, wish and want list the previous year, review that, if there are things that you didn't achieve, ask for them to be achieved in the new year, review what happened and ways you can achieve them.
Be specific.
When writing your prayers, wishes and want be specific. Let it make sense, let it be prayers and wants that makes sense and will be good for the future. For example, praying for a boyfriend or girlfriend when you want a husband. I know this sounds weird because its a boyfriend that turns to a husband right? but sometime, the mindset here matters. A boyfriend can last a minute and a husband a life time. When praying for such, be specific with what you want because God is willing and ready to hear your heart desires. You can be specific by writing down your prayers, wishes and wants in a list and headings.
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.— 1 John 5:15
This are the 3 main tips that I follow myself. But here are some more advice to help you.
PRAYERFULLY:
Prayerfully write down your prayers, wishes and wants. Do it with a mind in-tuned with God.
HEADING:
Have headings i.e. personal wants and prayers, family, friends, relationship, education, career, finance, church and whatever else you want.
ONE BOOK:
Get yourself one book, and each year on one page write down the year and use the following page to write down your prayers, wishes and wants. You will then have pages for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 in the same book. This is even good for checking the things God has done for you over the years. They are a good way of testifying to God's goodness. You can even share it with people in the future, i.e. family and friends.
DATE IT ALL:
Note down next to the things you prayed and wished for date the prayers were answered or the date you achieved this things.
REVIEW:
Review each year, have a page to write down what you have learnt, what you were surprised about, what you were not realistic about, make a note of what you want to carry over to next year as your prayer, wishes and list.
TIMING:
Write your New Years resolution (Prayer wishes and wants ) between the 1st month of the new year and review the previous year between last week of the year and the first 2 weeks of the new year.
PROGRESS RECORD:
Make sure to check your progress as the year goes on and keep everything you've written down in prayers.
NO TO DISCOURAGEMENT:
Never be discouraged at the end of the year. There is always a blessing attached to each thing, i.e. in form of lessons and improvement before you get your prayers, wishes and wants answered. Know that whatever your wrote down God will do, if not that year, the next or whenever GOD WILLS!!.
May this year be a blessed year for you. May your prayers, wishes and wants be answered. May you have many testimonies.
REMEMBER TO START THIS NEW YEAR WITH CHRIST.
In Christ Alone lies the answers to our prayers.