“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.”
3 John 2
When the cycle of a year comes to a close and you can begin a new phase, there are a lot of projections and plans. People send cards and messages to friends, wishing happiness and blessings for the following year. It is important to understand that God prepared all kinds of blessings for His children, and they are closer to us than we can imagine. If we only extend our hands we can receive the blessings. At the beginning of the year, you should write down, in detail, all that you would like God to do for you during the year. Why is this important to write? You can write, draw, or take a picture of something; put whatever representation you want to put in a book, in order to declare your blessing for the year. When you share it with others it becomes more real.
What are your petitions towards God for next year? Look for God’s direction. Be sure that God’s direction is in your life from the beginning of the year. He wants to bless you, even with the things that seem insignificant. We must forget what remains behind at the end of the year, and we must press on towards what lies ahead, towards the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. Declare this with faith, “The year that is coming will be the best year of my life. In the coming year I will be a conqueror. God is going to give me His dreams and I will conquer, overcome and triumph in the name of Jesus.”
It is important to take into account that you are the beloved of the Lord, and that He desires the following things for your life:
• To prosper in everything – What the Lord is asking from you in order for His blessings to be yours is to receive the Word of God. He wants you to delight in its teachings and meditate on them day and night. Then you will be, “…like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, whatever they do prospers” (Psalm 1:2-3).
• To have good health – We must understand that sickness is a messenger of death; it robs finances, it ruins lives, it is the cause for family divisions, and it is always an uninvited guest. In His great love and mercy, Jesus took sickness and pain and carried them on His body, destroying them forever through the Cross. The only thing God is asking you to do is to believe that He has already done it. Then, we will be able to enjoy all of His benefits.
• To prosper in your soul – David said, “Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all His benefits” (Psalm 103:1-2). David had many reasons to bless the Name of God. This is why he tells his soul that it is its duty to do just that and he presents enough reasons for his soul to obey. He tells it to bless God because of His forgiveness, health, redemption, favor and mercy. He reminds his soul of the good food that God had given to him, and for having renewed his youth as the eagle, and much more.
Some thoughts may come to you that will try to make you believe that you are not worthy, or that you have failed in the past, or that it makes no sense to fight, or that nobody takes you into account. Do not believe them! You are not a failure; You are an overcomer. You did not come to this world because you are a failure. On the contrary, this world can only be conquered by overcomers. It doesn’t matter if the enemy used relatives or people who are close to you to reject you. You are not a loser. You are a winner and God wants to bless you.
Believe that the coming year is going to be the best one of your life. Don’t begin it with timidity. Instead, start it with all of the strength of a conqueror. Declare that this will be the most extraordinary year of all your life.
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
No one in his school would have said that Thomas Edison was going to be one of the greatest geniuses of the Twentieth Century. In fact, his teachers thought that his mind was limited because it was very hard for him to understand what they were trying to teach him. However, his only real problem was deafness that was caused by scarlet fever. His life changed in 1862, when he was 12-years-old. W. E. Wise says in his book, Edison, His Youth and His Times, that Edison saved the life of the son of the chief of police in his hometown. Edison saw the small child playing in the railroads. He was about to be killed by a train. Edison threw himself over the child, knocked him down and away from the train. He covered the child with his body while the train went by a few millimeters away. Due to Edison’s heroism, he was compensated with a telegraphy course, which was the beginning of his career as an inventor.
When Edison saved the life of the child, it allowed him to find the way to success. In a similar way, God has designed a life full of blessings for every one. No matter how you see your life now, if you draw near to God, He is going to use any circumstance to fulfill His purpose in you.
TODAY’S DECLARATION
“I enjoy spiritual peace, health and prosperity because the good Lord has found pleasure in me.”
Today’s post is an excerpt from Pastor Cesar Castellanos’ book, Declarations of Power for 365 Days of the Year: Volume Four.
TODAY’S BIBLE READING
Our Bible Reading Plan gives 25 daily readings per month. There is no scheduled reading for today. You can use this time to catch up on any readings you may have missed, or read through previous passages again.
