“And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”
Colossians 2:10
Colossians 2:10
If you’re ready to make a fresh start, you need to take a personal inventory. That means you take stock of and evaluate what you’ve got to work with. When you do a personal inventory, ask yourself these three questions:
1. What are your assets?
2. What have you learned?
3. Who can help you with your fresh start?
Look at your physical assets, your educational assets, and your financial assets. What abilities do I have to use in God’s work? And remember your spiritual assets as a child of God. Colossians 2:10 says, “And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”
2. What have you learned?
Take time to write down lessons you’ve learned about life, yourself, family, God—whatever you can think of. Galatians 3:4 says, “Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?” Please don’t waste your experiences you Have the opportunity to learn from them.
Especially pay attention to your painful experiences—because God never wastes a hurt. Instead of having a pity party, learn from your pain. Write down the lessons. Stop regretting and rehearsing your mistakes and start learning from them. Why? Because innovation is always built on failure. It’s how you recognize what does not work in your life.
You can also review what Bible teaching has taught you. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:14, “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.” Literally - remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you.
3. Who can help you with your fresh start?
Proverbs 15:22 says, “without counsel, plans go awry, But in the multitude of counselors they are established.” So get all the advice you can, and you will succeed; without it you will not succeed.
Pride will often keep people from reaching their aspirations and goals. Instead of asking for advice, people insist on figuring things out themselves.
The Bible says pride leads to destruction. It also says that God gives grace to the humble. Why? Because if you are humble, you are teachable. You are never going to have a fresh start if you act like you’ve already arrived. You need other people to speak truth, point out your blind spots, encourage you, and help you remember God’s promises.
When you take a thorough, honest inventory of your life, you’ll see how God has prepared you for this fresh start.
Think about it.
- Why do you think you often learn more from your failures than from your victories?
- Are you a teachable person? Why or why not?
- What are some of your spiritual assets? What makes them assets?
- What are your liabilities? What makes them liabilities?
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