Vision with Action

“Vision without action is merely a dream.

Action without vision just passes the time.

Vision with action can change the world.”

Joel  Barker

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new year.  Clocks, phones, computers, and calendars will advance.  Checks and correspondence will need to include 2017 as part of the date.  There is much anticipation about beginning anew with hopes, dreams, and goals.

Today is a good time to reflect on and give thanks for this past year and then spend time and energy beginning to look forward, with vision and purpose, to what actions need to take place in the days and year to come.  In the Old Testament book of Zechariah, God instructed His children of some important rules to follow.  They are worthy of His followers in 2017 to apply as well.

“Here is your part: 

Tell the truth.

Be fair.

Live at peace with everyone.

Don’t plot harm to others;

Don’t swear that something is true when it isn’t!

How I hate all that sort of thing!” says the Lord.

Zechariah 8:16-17 (The Living Bible)

Fortunately, when we mess up God doesn’t make us wait until January 1st to start over again.  He is faithful to forgive us and help make all things new every single day of the year.  May this be the year we seek to see God’s vision, purpose, and plan and actively respond in obedience.

He must become greater; I must become less.

John 3:30

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

2 Corinthians 5:17 

This is what the Lord says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:16. 18-19

Teach us to number our days,
    that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

If people can’t see what God is doing,
    they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,
    they are most blessed.

Proverbs 29:18 (The Message)

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us.

Philippians 3:13-14