Prepare for 2021 by Finishing 2020 Strong

We are now well into the fourth quarter of 2020. While you might feel that this has been the most prolonged and most disruptive year of your life, 2020 is not over. For many, there is a spirit of wanting to close out and forget about 2020. There is no need to wait weeks before a new year starts to reset your life and ministry; you can do it now. There is still a calling on your life that cannot be tossed aside by the disruption around you. As with Saul (later Paul) in Acts 9:1–19, there is still more to your life than what has happened in your past. 2020 does not have to impact your life negatively, and you can finish strong by being the best you, for God.

RESET YOUR THINKING

Saul made a series of poor choices, but God did not once give up on him. Your past is not your grave marker, so do not give up on the dream and promises God placed in your life at the beginning of this year. Each year I pray for a word that God will give me to remind me that He is with me. My 2020 word was “Dream Forward.” I can assure you, I have felt more like falling backward than dreaming forward. However, when I look back on this year of uncertainty, I can see for certain God using the disruption to prepare me for the season I am in now. Pay close attention to the direction God gives you, and do not question everything that is happening around. Like Saul, you have to reset your thinking. He had to change his mind-theology to a heart-theology and did that by paying attention to the direction God gave him. It is a reminder that you have to shift from your desires to what God desires for you to reset your thinking.

RESET YOUR OUTLOOK

On New Year’s Day, many leaders pray and plan for the year ahead in ministry. If we have learned anything in 2020, it is good to plan, but leaders should remain flexible to God’s plans for their church. Saul thought he was obeying God. He was on the road to Emmaus preparing to follow through on the outline he had in his head, but God reset is the outlook and changed everything in his life. 2020 has been a ‘reset your outlook’ kind of year. God can take a negative situation, or even a whole negative year, and take something positive out of it, but you first have to do your part. Saul had to cry out to see his outlook change, and for you, what is that change that needs to happen to your outlook? Is it more prayer time? Is it more alone time with God to listen? Is it resetting your dreams for God’s desires? You do not have to wait for 2021 to find out what God has for you. You can do it today by resetting your outlook from a negative mindset to God’s mindset overnight.

RESET THE POWER

Saul was capturing people to take them to their death, by the power given to him through the ruling officials. But, he was failing in his spiritual power. Prayer can activate and translate the divine power that is needed to help a follower go and grow through the working of the spirit. 2020 has taught that the world can try to go and grow in their power but will surely fail. By resetting the power from self to Savior, a person is reestablishing the head of their life. Saul would submit his authority or that given to him for the source of God and would be radically transformed. He came through this testing and trial period and came out with a new man (Paul) in Christ. See 2020 as a test and trial to help you come out better by relinquishing self for the savior’s power.

Reset your life today by resetting your thinking, outlook and power to connect to what is most important, and that is your relationship with God. I am believing and declaring over your ministry that a Saul/Paul experience can come out of 2020 when you allow this reset to take hold in all aspects of your life and ministry. Do not wait for 2021 to achieve what God has for you.

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Desmond Barrett
Desmond Barrett
Desmond Barrett is the lead pastor at Winter Haven First Church of the Nazarene in Winter Haven, Florida. He is the author of several books and most recently the co-author with Charlotte P. Holter of Missional Reset: Capturing the Heart for Local Missions in the Established Church (Resource Publications) and has done extensive research in the area of church revitalization and serves as church revitalizer, consultant, coach, podcast host and mentor to revitalizing pastors and churches.

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