I like the ushering in of a new year. The celebration of what has passed and the welcoming of want is to come just brings such excitement. During these seasons, we don’t just celebrate but we think, we pray, we hope, we believe for a year or time ahead full of great and wonderful things happening in our lives. Some of us set goals about what we would like to accomplish. Some of us pray about them consistently. Some strategize on how to make our goals become reality.
I believe God gives allows times and seasons for a purpose – to refresh us. Just as the season of winter, spring, summer and fall have a purpose in renewing and refreshing the earth, so do the seasons or celebrations in our lives. Seasons like New Year’s, Easter, Christmas – whether man-made or God-made – can have a positive impact on our lives.
Apart from the normal seasons most people celebrate; we can create our own seasons that bring refreshing and renewal in our lives. For me, I set apart a specific time of thanksgiving and reflection at least four times a year. I like to sit with my journal and write a note of praise (which is often very long note) to God as I reflect over the days, weeks and months of the previous quarter. I like to celebrate God’s goodness to me and would spend extra time in praise and thanksgiving to honour Him.
But what benefits have I reaped from creating times of celebration and thanksgiving and what can this do for you? Creating your own season of celebration can:
- Keep your mind on the Source of your life and on the Help of my life. “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3, NKJV)
- Re-ignite a heart of gratitude in you. Sometimes the grind of life can take its toil on your attitude and your outlook on life. If you set aside special times of thanksgiving and celebration to God you will be uplifted and you will gain new energy to keep going.
- Create a moment of pause. You will gain some perspective on what you’ve accomplished through Christ. It helps you to determine where you are, where you need to go and what you need to do and what God wants you to do.
- Lift any feelings of discouragement that have been lingering and propel you forward. As you reflect and celebrate you will recognize that Christ, who brought you through the past three months and the prior seasons of your life, is faithful to take you into the next season victoriously.
- Give you inner strength to recommit yourself to God and to achieve your goals. In some cases, you may even recognize the need to eliminate or revise some specific goals as the Lord directs you.
Although this season you create isn’t done with the same fanfare as Christmas or New Years’, it can bring the same result – a refreshing, a renewing of the soul, an exception or anticipation for God’s powerful move in your life.
What about you? Do you create and celebrate season in your life to help bring you through the daily grind of life or do you just struggle through? There are times when you have to encourage yourself in the Lord and renew yourself.
Make a conscious effort to create seasons of celebration, thanksgiving, reflection and re-commitment and you will notice that you’ll make it through the year more triumphantly!