Practice reflection in 2024

No matter how you look at the past year as a year of blessing or a year of something else, it is important for us to take time and reflect on the things in our life and evaluate where we are. Reflection is an important component to living a life that honors God. The word means “careful consideration,” “fixing the thoughts on something,” and “meditation.”

The original meaning of the word was to “fold back,” “bend back.” Therefore, reflection means to consider and think about something that has happened before. You bring it back to the forefront and think about it. We must develop a practice of doing this in our lives.

Many people complain about being stuck or feeling plateaued or spinning their wheels. How do you find out what is causing the lack of motion in your life? It is only when we reflect on the why of our life that we can come to this conclusion.

Jesus modeled reflection for his disciples. The gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus would get up early in the morning and get alone and pray and reflect on the things that had happened and what must happen next. The gospel of Mark in chapter 6 shows that Jesus and the disciples practiced this time of reflection and prayer.

The sad thing is that many of us get trapped in a very closed and negative way of thinking, and we fail to realize that Jesus Christ came to change the way we think and process our lives. The book of Romans puts it this way. “2 And do not be conformed to this [c]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [e]acceptable and perfect.”

Renewing our mind is vital to growth. If you are finding yourself stuck or seeming to go round in circles in your life, often you will find that your mind is steeped in the same thought patterns and processes. For you to gain traction, you need to renew your mind. A renewed mind leads to a transformed life. The book of First Corinthians chapter 11 says that each person must examine himself.

This passage is talking about communion and fellowship with God. A person must examine himself. This evaluation is an honest assessment of our condition and the things that we are encountering. The reason many of us have that feeling of why I can’t experience all these things that others are talking about is because we have failed to examine ourselves and even when we do examine ourselves we are too busy examining through the lens of flesh rather than the word of God.

The book of 1 Corinthians goes further to say that it is like we are looking in a mirror in dim lighting rather than taking an honest evaluation of ourselves. In 2023, it is quite possible that we made excuses for our actions and our words. We said things like I am only human, or they don’t know what I went through. Those things may be true, but often we find that when we turn the light on i.e. use the scripture to evaluate our lives and our choices, we have equal or greater part in the overall feeling of being plateaued.

We were not created to sit in misery and make excuses. God has created and called us to move forward and to grow in Him. The truth of the matter is that many people only focus on the negative of the year, month, day, or hour. In doing so, they have failed to recognize the other days that God has still been there working and helping you. People often would rather sit in misery and self-pity because it garners them attention rather than acknowledge that Christ has been there to help them and move forward.

In 2024, practice reflection. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you make an honest assessment of your life. When he shows you the areas that need to change, make it the priority. 2024 does not have to be like 2023 or any other year. It can and will be greater as we strive to be more and more like Jesus Christ.