2017 is coming in real fast, and it would be great to prepare for its arrival. Do you want to start the next year right? Read on if you do.

The Right Start

Just like how a good, healthy breakfast powers us up for a whole day of activities, doing the right things at the start of a new year ensures that we'll have enough momentum and push to go on even when the year becomes challenging. And just like the pangs of lunch hunger during a very hectic day, the stress of unexpected happenings in the middle of the year is something you don't want to face unprepared.

Knowing that, I'd like to share a few things we can do to start 2017 right. There are a lot of things that we can choose to do, but I want to share just a few that really matter to me. Ready? Here we go.

Leave This Year's Baggage Behind

Seriously, dear reader, leave all your baggage behind. It might be some painful event in your life such as being fired from your job, being abandoned by friends, or other events, but what's important is that you have left them all behind.

It would be wrong to let our past failures haunt us until the next year. I know this personally because I've allowed my past to affect me as if it was the present. These weights simply hindered me from pursuing God fully. Don't let that happen to you.

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1)

Seek the Lord

No one knows how long they will live. Truth is that we could all make plans about what to do next year, but no one knows if these plans will ever come to fruition. Why not seek the Lord who knows the future, and has declared the end from the beginning?

"For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you shall call upon Me, and you shall come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You shall seek Me and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

Mark Out a Straight Path to Follow Christ

Choose for yourself to follow Jesus with renewed vigour, which also comes from Him. Set your face like flint (Isaiah 50:7) and decide to pursue God no matter what. The Bible tells us that those who wait upon Him will have their strength renewed and will soar on wings like the eagle's (Isaiah 40:31). If you've felt like you've lost passion for the Lord because 2016 wasn't that good to you, believe that 2017 will be.

After all, God is good, and His love endures forever (Psalm 136:1). His mercies are renewed every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23), and in Christ they are always available for us in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).

"Therefore lift up your tired hands, and strengthen your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame go out of joint, but rather be healed." (Hebrews 12:12-13)