Happy New Year! I pray that you have joyful anticipation and excitement for this year! We serve a great and loving God, and in this new year, I want to encourage you that life gets better when you get better. When a seed is planted, it grows down before it grows up. The roots must grow to anchor the seed before it sprouts. We must respect this universal principle: “You must grow deep before you grow wide.” This is the treasure you should seek, developing the personality, attitude, skills, methods, and rhythms of life that build into who you want to become. You must believe you can be transformed into the kind of person you envision!  

Interestingly, you actually don’t have to believe in yourself to get better. In fact, that might be a bad idea. If you find yourself in a rut, out of money, you’ve hurt people and sinned — to believe in yourself in that state; we call that delusion. Jesus says the truth will set you free, and the truth is we’ve all messed up. You don’t have to believe in yourself now, you have to believe in your future self. That’s what you have to believe.

Friend, stimulate your imagination to reflect someone you can become! Visualize this: Where would you live? Who would you befriend and spend time with? And, what would you accomplish? We can believe in our future as we include God in these aspects! When we get a clear picture of how we want to act, see, think, and feel, and decide to build into our lives the Godly treasures that lead to them, everything changes for our good.