Embrace 2024 with Faith and Hope
Written by Susan Chan
The Chinese Lunar New Year is observed starting February 10, and people all over Asia are excitedly anticipating the festivities and celebrations with family reunion dinners, gift-giving, and receiving of ang pows. Being an Asian, my new year is just beginning.
In this short article, I will explore how to approach the new year with faith, hope and courage.
We all have both hopes and fears as we step into another year. The hopes may include aspirations for personal growth, career advancement, financial stability, and good health. On the other hand, the fears may include concerns about finance, health, career, and children’s future.
Here are some of the fears people may have as they approach the new year:
Fear of the unknown and uncertainty: A new year represents a fresh start, but it also brings with it a sense of uncertainty about what the future holds. This can be daunting for some people, who may worry about things like their careers, relationships, health, or the future of their children. And for those living in war torn countries like Israel, Ukraine, Myanmar, I can imagine people there wondering “do we have to endure another year of uncertainty and suffering? When is all this anguish and misery going to end?”
Fear of failure: Some people may have experienced failures in business, in relationships, in their marriage, their enterprises or endeavors and other pursuits in the past years and now in the new year, they may be afraid of history repeating itself. They may have to face some more failures. They have lost confidence and trust in themselves and in others. And some may have even lost faith in God because of past failures. But the good news is Failure is not Fatal. Success is made up of hundreds of failures.
Fear of change: Some people may be apprehensive of entering a new year because they are afraid of how it will change their lives. Most of us do not like change. We are creatures of habit. And we want everything to remain status quo. But changes are inevitable.
Some unsettling changes may come upon us suddenly and unexpectedly. For example, change of marital status, from married to singleness due to divorce or death of a spouse. You may lose your job or a loved one.
Even positive changes can be unsettling and may take us months to adjust to these changes. For example, change from carefree wife to motherhood. For older people, your son or daughter leaves for college in another city and you experience the empty nest syndrome. Or your son or daughter got married and leaves to start his or her life with his or her spouse. Or you got a promotion which requires you to relocate. But the Christian perspective is to embrace change with hope and faith. It helps to look at the positive side of change. Heraclitus said, "Change is the only constant in life." You might as well embrace it. Change is inevitable, as we are reminded in Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Without change there is no growth, no development, no life, and we slowly rot and decay. This is true of people within organizations, churches, and ministries. Change forces you to grow as a person. “It forces you to evaluate where your priorities in life are and what you hold dear. So, change is an opportunity for you to develop a stronger character” (Develop Good Habits).
So therefore, welcome and embrace change. God is in the changing and transforming business. He said in Isaiah 43:19 “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
Financial fears: The start of a new year can also be a time of financial stress, as people think about the cost of living and inflation going up and up every year. Some worry about financing children’s education as the new term begins. Or it could be having to pay more for mortgage or utility bills as the government increases levy and taxes in the new year. All this can be especially worrisome for people who are already struggling financially on a daily basis.
As children of God, we can overcome fears as we approach the new year and embrace it with faith and hope.
Remember God's promises: Hold onto biblical assurances like Isaiah 41:10 "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Psalm 32:8 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”
How then can we embrace the new year with faith and hope? Let me share my “3 Ps” for approaching 2024 with faith and hope.
1. Prioritize Prayer
Make prayer your priority. Talk to God about your fears, hopes, and aspirations for the new year.
Surrender your anxieties and seek guidance. The word of God exhorts us in Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God.”
Prayer is like breathing, breathing in, and breathing out. Practice spiritual breathing - in prayer learn to breathe in the Holy Spirit’s power and anointing. Then breathe out all your negative thoughts and feelings. Let out, let go of all your pain, anger, fearful thoughts, and resentment. Then breathe in again the healing and cleansing power of the Holy Spirit. Edwin Keith encapsulates this concept of spiritual breathing aptly, “Prayer is exhaling the spirit of man and inhaling the spirit of God.” Charles Stanley expressed the therapeutic effect of prayer in these words, “We can be tired, weary, and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that he injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.”
2. Practice Gratitude
Instead of dwelling on anxieties, express gratitude for God's blessings, both big and small. Gratitude shifts your perspective towards hope and abundance. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 encourages us to, "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Melody Beattie declared the benefits of gratitude int these words, “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." In the same tone, Dietrich Bonhoeffer asserted, "Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy."
I know about the benefits of gratitude and thankfulness, and I do verbalize them in my prayers and in my sharing, but I have not written them down. One day I was inspired by Heidi McLaughlin who shared that she has thousands of thankful notes in her journal. I was immediately caught up with this idea and so I decided to start my grateful journal on January 1, 2024. I hope to do this for a long, long time.
3. Propel Faith, Higher and Deeper
For many of us, the Covid pandemic has caused our faith and spiritual fervency to plateau. This is true of individuals and churches. We have gone flat and lost our spiritual fizz like coca cola losing its fizziness after you open the can and leave it out for a while.
I desire in 2024 to propel my faith to a higher level, to activate the mountain moving faith. I know there are challenges in 2024 and new openings for ministry that will demand this mountain moving faith. I have to level up my faith and believe that the God I trust is the God of the impossible. Like the Apostle Paul, I need to press on. In Philippians 3:13 Apostle Paul says, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Additionally, I want to go deeper, to know Christ more intimately. I want to emulate Paul who said in Philippians 3:10-11, “ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians that they would know Christ better. This is my prayer for my church and the people I mentor, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Ephesians 1:17).
Finally, I leave with you this analogy. The new year is a fresh start, a blank canvas to paint with faith and hope. You are the painter, by making prayer your priority, practicing gratitude, propelling your faith higher and deeper, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, you will paint a beautiful and glorious picture in 2024.
Prayer: Dear Lord, as we step into the unknown of 2024, we pray for faith and hope to light our way. May this year be filled with renewal and upscaling of our faith, to go higher and deeper. Grant us the strength to face challenges with unwavering faith and the belief that each day brings new opportunities. Help us to trust in Your promises and to remember Your faithfulness in all circumstances. We place our hope in You, knowing that You are always with us. Amen.
