Six Happy New Year Thoughts

from Pat Morley

Volume 212
January 8, 2007

By now I’m sure you’re up and running for 2007. Like all of us, I’ve been thinking about how to have the biggest impact for Christ in 2007. Here are my thoughts.

1. “I have enough. I am enough.” Last year when I spoke at a Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast in Great Falls, Montana, a man handed me a piece of paper with these words on it. It has ministered to me so much that I have placed it in the front of my Bible. For a “deal junkie” and “activity addict” these are comforting and focusing words. My work for Christ must come out of the overflow of my walk with Christ.

2. “Love.” Of all God’s wonderful attributes, the only one sufficient for Him to enter human experience and rescue us is love. Not His holiness, power, majesty, dominion, authority, wealth, omniscience, or omnipresence. Most of His titles that we find most precious emanate from His love: Father, Good Shepherd, Friend of sinners. John 3:16, Matthew 22:37-40, and John 13:34-35 summarize everything. If receiving and dispensing love is the main thing, then I will ask God for more grace to help me keep it the main thing.

3. “Hope.” This year I want to give people hope—hope for their children, hope for their marriages, hope for their depression, hope for financial stability, hope for meaning. Hope defines the substance of what people want and need—whether they pursue it in the form of relationships, things, work, or church-related achievements. I “hope” to be a better spokesman for the true source of hope.

4. “Prayer.” Each year I write a prayer on January 1 in my One Year Bible. This year my prayer is for our entire family rather than an individual prayer. This year’s prayer is, “Through the help of Your Holy Word, that we may dwell with You every moment of our lives, that we may serve You with all the zeal that Your Spirit is willing to give us, that You will bless and multiply our family, that you will expand our boundaries beyond anything we have dared to dream or imagine.”

5. “Grandfather.” Mid March. Little girl. Need I say more?

6. “Goals.” Now I’m finally ready to start thinking about some work goals. If I don’t, I’ll have no way to know if I’m heading in the right direction! So, I’d like to finish one book, contract for another, and promote the one coming out in February. There—that’s books. Launching www.disciplemen.com --biggest thing Man in the Mirror has ever attempted. Successful start to Morley Leadership Center.

As you launch off into the new year, I earnestly pray God will let you know, “I have enough. I am enough. Love. Hope. Prayer. Family. Goals.”

Always your friend,

Pat Morley, Ph.D.