“Be very careful then, how you live—not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Eph 5:15-17)

Happy New Year, 2017. Some of us have had an awesome 2016 and are hoping for even better next year. Some of us have been beaten up this past year—we’re excited about a new start—to press the reset button. In today’s verse, Paul has a few thoughts on new starts. If one year from now we’re going to look back on 2017 as a good year, there are a few things we might want to consider:

“Be very careful then, how you live”. Some things we’ll bring on ourselves in 2017, and some things will be unavoidable. This is true of joys as well as problems. For the things we bring on ourselves, “live—not as unwise, but as wise”. Living wisely is simply living in such a way that we minimize the regrets we will be experiencing a year (or years) from now. Do that and many of the “unavoidable” problems in 2017 will be less severe, or maybe even dodged completely. When we live wisely, unanticipated blessings will find us.

“Making the most of every opportunity”. Whether we’re faced with blessings or problems— Either way, we don’t squander the opportunities God puts in our lives. We change the things that we can change, and trust God in those unavoidable problems:
•       we trust Him to be with us (Matt 28:20)
•       we trust him to be working it all for the good (Rom 8:28)
•       we trust Him to see us through (2 Thes 3:3)

“Don’t be foolish”. You’ve probably heard it said that a fool is someone who does the same thing over and over and expects different results. If we live 2017 like we lived 2016, then we’re likely to get the same results. Enough said.

“Understand what the Lord’s will is”. A short list of what the will of God for our 2017 is not:
•       Worrying about everything
•       Saturating our minds with negative thoughts
•       Nursing anxiety attacks
•       Bloating our lives and hearts to the point that we cannot grasp spiritual thoughts or have fellowship with Jesus

Finally, if we want to have a great 2017, we need to seek the mind of Christ. When we look back a year from now, our mindset will have determined most of what kind of year we had. Paul wrote:

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who… made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and … He humbled Himself… Therefore God highly exalted Him” (Phil 2:5-9).