Praise God; You're Not Entitled to Today.

Tip: Experiment with lining things up to the corners. The results can be very eye pleasing!

As the sun sets on one year and rises revealing yet another, it can be easy to focus on New Years parties, resolutions, and trying to regain the sleep you lost on New Years Eve. The future has arrived... again! Welcome to it, my friend.

But stop and consider this: you've just woken up in another year. We do it so often that it becomes commonplace, but really- God just brought you through yet another 365 days. You're still here. You're still alive. A lot can happen in merely a day's time, and here you've made it through a year! Stop and thank the Lord. He didn't have to let you live this long, you know. Nowhere are you promised a certain number of years to live.

Seeing as a lot can happen over 365 days, it's time to ask yourself a question: are you closer with or farther from God than you were a year ago? It may seem barely distinguishable sometimes, but as a friend once told me, "You are never at a stand still. Either you are getting closer with God or you are gradually falling away. There is no middle ground." 

Praise God, and draw nearer to Him through time in the Bible. That is how to start off a new year.

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.   (Daniel 2:20-22)