What if we stared at God every moment of our day? The Bible tells us we should fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2), but how often do we make a conscious effort to do that? More importantly, what does that look like in real life? I’ve recently been trying to work this out for myself. The key is to first get a proper mental image of God. Check out Revelation 4:8-11, where it describes angels who do nothing but praise God, all day. They are so consumed with His beauty that they can do nothing else. God is the perfection of all that is good. He is perfect and unconditional love, and is constantly in pursuit of you, reaching out to you. Look at Isaiah 6:3-5, where the prophet feels ruined just from looking at the beauty of God. Keep that picture of God at the forefront of your mind.
humility
Your Greatest Achievement
What is the greatest achievement you can think of in life? If you could achieve your dreams, what would they be? How do you define success? Think of the biggest goal you can imagine. Dare to dream your biggest dream. Now think what it will feel like if we live our life in such a way that when we meet Jesus He says to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). Wouldn’t your wildest dreams, all of your greatest achievements combined, pale in comparison to that one conversation?
Praying as Jesus Prayed
When Jesus taught His disciples what we know as “The Lord’s Prayer”, He gave us much more than a simple model prayer. Within these few short verses are the keys to God’s will for each of our lives. If you’ve ever wondered how you should pray, it’s in there. If you’ve ever wondered what God’s will is for your life, it’s in there as well.
Want to know how you should treat others? Jesus articulated it in His prayer. Are you curious about how to have a right relationship with your money? You guessed it, it’s right there in the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a brief passage, so let’s break it down piece by piece.
How Can You Improve Someone’s Life?
Instead of making plans how we can improve ourselves over the coming year, we should instead determine how we might improve the life of someone else. That’s a great shift to get our thinking off of ourselves and onto others. I guarantee you will have better results and greater happiness in your life if you consistently focus on serving others more than yourself. It’s the model Jesus taught, and therefore the one we were created to live. Everything we do should be with the goal of helping others, and our New Year’s resolutions or life goals should always be formed with this in mind.
The Good Samaritan
I was recently driving on a Sunday afternoon when I noticed a car stopped on the opposite side of the road with its hazard lights on. An older woman was in the driver’s seat, looking not overly concerned. As the vehicle was a newer BMW convertible and my quick glance at the driver told me she was well dressed, I assumed she was Realtor and had simply pulled over to check her directions. I allowed that rationalization to satisfy the pull I was feeling to turn around and see if she needed assistance. As I have done an embarrassingly number of times in my life, I reasoned that since I know next to nothing about the workings of automobiles, I would be of little help anyway.