People spend lots of time talking about a new year and all the things they plan to do.
I’m not immune from this foolishness. I, like you, have made some resolutions I know I’m not going to keep. As we go about the year, we’re going to forget a lot of what we said January 1. It happens in this business we call life. And it’s only natural because many of these promises we made to ourselves and not to God! If we were truly honest with ourselves, how many times did we make a rule or promise that didn’t have God in mind? How many times did we get angry when December comes around and we realize how little progress we’ve made?
Jesus already gave a list of things you need to do, so let’s start there for 2019:
1. Share the Gospel with the world, teaching them everything about Jesus (Matt. 28: 18-20). Jesus wants everyone to know him and to be known in the world. Beyond everything you hear in the news about Christians being persecuted for their faith in him, it’s still our job to share “The Good News”.
2. Be useful. Jesus says for us to present what he has done in our lives and be a light to this world (Matt 5: 14 -16). We have many Believers who choose to remain silent, oversaturated with social media missteps and fallacies, and who believe that if they over love the person in sin while never addressing their sin, they’re doing a good deed. The flavor we provide to this world as salt is to purify and make things better received when ingested (Matthew 5:13). Now before Mark 12:31 is taken out of context in response to that comment, let’s consider what is being done: Like a parent to a child, do you not love your children enough to present to them their wrongdoing and a pathway to correction? God did that with you! We are sinners saved by grace. Simply share that truth, and God will do the rest.
3. Be discerning. Sans the popular culture abuse of Matthew 7:1 in regards to judging, we are to be discerning. Did you know that it’s written that we should avoid being deceived because of the effects of “Bad Company” ? (1 Cor. 15:33). I think that involves making some judgement calls on people and places right? In addition, John says that we should “…try the Spirits…” (1 John 4: 1-6).
The Bible presents all the New Years Resolutions we’ll ever need, and they’ve lasted longer than ours.
