Charles Wesley’s eighteenth century hymn helps me welcome the New Year with the right perspective. Here are the words to the last stanza of Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies:

Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
Visit then this soul of mine! Pierce the gloom of sin and grief!
Fill me, radiancy divine; scatter all my unbelief;
More and more thyself display, shining to the perfect day.

The whole hymn described my hopes for the New Year. “The sky is the limit" doesn't even go far enough to describe what God wants for us. God wants to prosper us beyond the limitations of this universe. It isn't prosperity in the way we naturally think of it on earth. God wants our souls to soar with radiance divine. He wants to prosper our souls with belief and more of Himself filling our souls. The prosperity God longs to give us is not held in bank accounts, houses or riches. God made earthly things to sustain us so that we can find true riches. When we try to fill our souls with the provisions of this world, we end up empty and out of touch with God.

I have enjoyed the autumn and winter skies in Texas this year. Each morning and evening God displays His unique and magnificent glory over all the earth. The poorest people and the richest ones are equally invited to His glorious display. God’s prosperity is for all who live on this earth. No soul is unable to receive the richest of all blessings — the glory of God in a soul.

I have been focused on this glory for years now, and know that I fall so far short of what it is God most wants to bring me. Seeking the kind of glory that fills the skies does not come easy to sinful souls.
As the skies change each morning, they remind me that God makes everything new on a daily, even momentary basis. I don't have to wait another 365 days for a chance to start over. God is ready twenty-four hours a day to begin again with my desire to fill my soul with His glory. He is ever ready to display His glory through me. Isaiah 43:18-19 says:

“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.”

I want this year to be a year of His receiving greater glory through my life. I want to open my heart, mind and soul to His Spirit so that He can show me the right perspective on living in this world. I can look to the new skies that are never exactly the same to be reminded that each new day is a new opportunity to seek God’s glory. As long as I have breath, I want to be thinking of His glory.

I begin my journey again today in the New Year. I ask Jesus to show me His perspective and His presence in this world. I invite Him to fill up my soul and drive out my unbelief. I want Him to help me see the new thing He is doing inside of me. I want to perceive it. I want to enjoy the streams of His refreshing and renewing glory in the wilderness of my life here on earth.

What new thing do you want Jesus to do for you in the New Year?