New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions every year.  We resolve to lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more, keep our house and office clean, and be kinder to family and friends.    People make all different types of resolutions, intending to keep them.  How often do you keep your resolutions?  How often do you think others keep their resolutions—at least longer than a few weeks?  If you reviewed your resolutions weekly, do you think you would be more likely to keep them?  I tend to forget yearly resolutions, but I am more likely to follow through on weekly resolutions.  Try one or more of these weekly Christian resolutions:

  1. This week I resolve to learn more about a local bible study and fellowship group.
  2. This week I resolve to spend some time reading my bible or a bible-based book.
  3. This week I resolve to talk to God, asking forgiveness for my sins, for guidance in living a godly life, and for His grace for others.
  4. This week I resolve to listen to God: listen for His guidance and listen for answers to my prayers, both spoken and unspoken. 
  5. This week I resolve to schedule some quiet time with God to read, to listen to music, or to meditate on His greatness.                                      
  6.  This week I resolve not to become discouraged, but to ask His forgiveness and begin again.
  7. This week I resolve to remember His life, death, and resurrection, and to live my life as a reflection of my beliefs.
  8. This week I resolve to help the less fortunate.
  9. This week I resolve to love others the way You love them.
  10. This week I resolve to thank God for His many blessings.
  11. This week I resolve to look for the small joys from God.

Choosing one resolution is the first step toward renewing your spiritual life. Reviewing your resolution on a weekly or even daily basis will help you to better remember and keep it. To more easily enable you to do this, consider posting your resolution in a visible place.  When you see it, ask God to help you keep it.  You might consider sharing your resolutions with a trusted friend. We know that “all things are possible” with God, even keeping resolutions.

Colossians 1:9-11a “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:  bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might.”

Father, as we contemplate this new year, reveal Your ways to enrich our spiritual lives and better reflect Your spirit living within us.  Help us to make spiritual resolutions, to review them regularly, and to grow ever closer to You. 

True Faith

Food for thought as we end this year:

“True faith rests upon the character of God and asks no further proof than the moral perfections of the One who cannot lie.”

― A W Tozer

Lord of all, help our faith grow.

Merry CHRISTmas

Merry Christmas!
May your heart have room for the Christ child today.
May it have room for the risen Savior all year long.

Thank you, Lord, for sending your son, Jesus, the Christ to save us all.

Peace

In the hurry and scurry and busyness of the season, take a deep breath. Take some time to be still and know that He is God. Breathe slowly, contemplate your Savior, and experience His peace.

Thank You, Lord, for providing peace, even when times are difficult, busy, or chaotic.

The Sun’s Warmth

User comments

I love to feel the sun shining on my face. Its rays soak into my skin, leaving me warm, mellow, and comfortable. In the sunshine my spirits lift, energizing me for the day’s tasks. On a cloudy, wintry day, the chill penetrates my body, leaving me cold and shivering. The sunless, gray sky reflects my own gloomy mood. I long for the sun to warm and cheer me. At night the lack of sunlight causes the world around me to darken, and I have difficulty finding my way. I cannot see my path, and I yearn for the sun to illuminate my world. At times it seems the sun will never return.

I know that the sun is still present on a cloudy day, but I hunger for its warmth. The sun still shines; the cloud cover merely obscures the light and the warmth. Likewise, I know the sun still shines at night. The earth has merely turned its back on the sun, so I am in its shadow, unable to see the light, unable to feel its warmth. Clear nights are illuminated by the moon, which merely reflects the sun’s light. Even though it seems that the sun is gone, I know that it shines in the heavens, no matter what I see or feel on an overcast day or pitch black night.

So it is with the Son’s presence, I love to feel the warmth of His love enveloping me. His warmth soaks into my soul, leaving me filled with joy, peace, and love. In days when His presence shines brightly, my spirits lift, energizing me for the day’s tasks.

At times His presence is obscured from me by my sin, my busyness, or my unwillingness to seek Him. Then my soul feels cold, my mood gloomy. I long for His presence to warm and cheer me. At times I am in spiritual darkness; my soul wanders lost, unable to see without His light. Trials and troubles overwhelm me, and I have difficulty finding my spiritual way. I can no longer see the path to Him, and it seems that His presence will never light my path again.

I know, of course, that He is present, even when I cannot see His hand in my affairs, but I long to feel His warmth. Behind my clouds of doubt or despair, He is always there. I know He is present, even when I am in the depths of spiritual darkness. I have merely turned my back on Him; I am in His shadow, unable to feel His light, unable to feel His warmth. Yet in the deepest spiritual night, even when I have turned my back on Him, I see His light reflected by my Christian brothers and sisters who lead me out of the darkness back into His light. Even though it seems, at times, that He is nowhere near, deep in my soul I know that He is always with me, surrounding and filling me with His love, if only I open my eyes to see His light.

Father, forgive my blindness. Open my eyes; make me always aware of Your abiding presence.

Isaiah 60:19, 20 “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.”

Difficult Times

User comments

“God whispers to us in our pleasures…but shouts in our pains.”

C. S. Lewis

Have you found this to be true? I know I grow closer to God in times of difficulties or pain. It is then that I must rely on Him.

The Love of Money

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

I Timothy 6:10 (NIV)

Father, protect us from loving money and seeking it above all else. Rather, teach us to love others as You love us.