The new year is officially upon us. Welcome to 2025! As I said in my post going into 2024, Simply Being Intentional in 2024, there is nothing particularly unique about entering a New Year. This might be part of our struggle with New Year’s Resolutions. Just like any other day, the clock ticks over from 11:59 PM to 12 AM and a new day begins. Yes, there is more fanfare, and fireworks, and the calendar changes from one year to the next, but, our day-to-day life continues on the same trajectory as the day before. Unless, that is, we choose to make a change.

It is not the changing of the calendar that makes the New Year particularly special, it is our willingness to take advantage of the opportunity that makes a difference. If we go into the New Year expecting a magical ability to suddenly do what we haven’t been able to do for so long, we will be sorely disappointed. We might make it a few days, weeks, or maybe even months, but baring an intentional choice to do something different, we will gravitate back to our norm. However, if we decide to take specific actions to begin living differently as we enter a New Year, or any other moment in life frankly, real change is possible. The New Year isn’t magical, but it can be valuable to we choose to be intentional.

In that spirit, my intentional choice entering 2025 can be summed up in the word “receive”. In past posts, I have written about my struggle with a desire to control outcomes. The biggest issue with this struggle is I was never created to do so. My job is to do my part to the best of my ability and to leave the outcome in the hands of the One who created all things, a God who loves me. The truth is He is ultimately in control of the outcomes anyway. The problem is I often forget this. My forgetfulness leads to anxiety, sucking the joy out of life. When I try to control outcomes, achieving the results I desire becomes more of a relief than a reason to celebrate. This is no way to live.

Instead, entering this New Year, my vision is to live life in a posture of receiving rather than grasping. This does not look like inaction but rather releasing. When you receive something, your hands are open and turned upward. It is essentially a recognition that the outcome is not mine to control. When your hands are opened to receive, it is much harder to hold onto something. This prevents you from seeing it as yours to control. You can do your part and then open your hands to receive the blessing that comes from it. A posture of receiving makes it much easier to let it go if the outcome is not what you expected.

You also tend to have your eyes up and looking out when you are receiving something. This helps to fight against the tendency to look down and worry about what you might lose or not get. When you lift your head up, you are able to see the blessings and opportunities available to you. Instead of only living for self-preservation, you begin to live for mutual-abundance. In other words, you live for more than just yourself. The secret is we were created to live this way and our lives will be fuller when we make that choice. By receiving instead of grasping, you are better able to see the blessings and opportunities you, and others, have been given as outflows of God’s unending abundance, not pieces of an exhaustible pie.

Choosing to receive also provides the opportunity to live in the present. This is a big one for me. When you are grasping, trying to control outcomes, you have to constantly be on the lookout for threats and opportunities. There is nothing inherently wrong with assessing threats and opportunities when you are trying to achieve a goal. The problem arises when you perpetually live in that state. It is exhausting and causes you to miss the blessings in life because you are continuously worried about “what is next”. Trust me. I live there far too often.

This is why my vision for 2025 is to receive instead of grasp. I desire to live a more present life, worrying less about the future I can’t control and living more for the moments I have been giving. In the end, outcomes are out of my control. Why live life on the never-ending hamster wheel of trying to do what is impossible to achieve? I am choosing to step off, lift up my eyes, open my hands, and receive. Feel free to join me on the journey to live more present and free.

Happy New Year!

James Belt

Click here​ for more resources to help you bring hope to others!