3 Ways To Get Ready For The New Year
As 2021 comes to a close, it's worth taking the time to pause and reflect on another year, ready to step into a new one.
Here is a collection of helpful questions to guide you through contemplation on the past, who you are becoming in the present, and insight into what's ahead.
The best way to experience this is by looking together and looking with God! Invite a trusted friend, coworker, neighbor, or family member to sit down together and take time to acknowledge the full scope of the last year, inviting God's presence throughout.
Look Back
Begin by looking back on the last 12 months, taking time to savor the good, recognize the extraordinary, and everything in-between.
What are you thankful for?
Where in your life did you experience transformation or breakthrough in your relationships (with yourself, with others, with God)?
In what ways did you bring life to the people around you - coworkers, friends, neighbors, family members?
What can you not afford to forget?
Look Around
The next phase of this reflection practice is looking around at what's happening in your life right now!
What is something you are celebrating?
What is one relationship that has deepened for which you are grateful for?
Explore what God is up to in your life currently and the lives around you. Share those encounters!
What kind of person are you becoming?
Look Ahead
End well by looking ahead at the next 12 months, considering everything together to inform what you are sensing about what's to come!
God is always up to something! What might God be inviting you to partner with Him in?
What is one Immanuel Lifestyle practice you can commit to habituating? Encourage one another throughout the year!
What dreams and hopes do you have for this upcoming year?
Identify people you are committed to intentionally partnering with as you pursue life with the Spirit!
The hope is that as you look back, look around, and look ahead together with God and with people, your awareness that God is always glad to be with you will grow!
What did looking around help you discern and discover? Commit to a next step and be intentional about checking in with one another throughout the next year! Life is better together.