It’s a new year and you’ve made the determination that this is the year you are dedicating your life to follow Christ. No more playing around, this time it’s for real. And then you lose your job. Your spouse tells you they don’t want to be married anymore. Your kid is diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly the thoughts of commitment to God are far away. Despite your best intentions, life jumped up and smacked you in the face. While the previous examples may be on the extreme side (though certainly in this day and age any one of them is within the realm of possibility), the challenge we often face is how to stay focused and committed to Jesus when life gets in the way.
priorities
Begin with Reflection
As we begin a new year, I urge you to take the time to reflect on your life to determine how you might more effectively carry out the commands of Christ. Reflection is not something that most of us do well, if at all. In our hurried lifestyles, we spare little time for introspection that could lead to improvement in the areas of life most important to us. Every January brings a fresh and exciting new start brimming with possibilities; these opportunities will pass us by unless we carefully pause and consider how we might make the best use of them. So set aside an hour or two this week to spend in prayer, asking God to reveal aspects of your life where you could serve Him better. I think you’ll find it to be some of the most useful time you have ever spent.
Consume Less, Contribute More
To help unify my goals for the upcoming year, I find it helpful to have a theme. In this way I can tie all my activities to a unified purpose. For next year I keep coming back to the idea of “Consume less, contribute more”. I wanted to share this with you, because as I pray through my ideas and plans, I find this theme has great potential for all who claim Christ as our Lord. What would it look like in your life if you were to consume less and contribute more?
Make Each Moment Count
I’m not a morbid person, but lately I’ve been thinking more and more about the concept of “What if I only had a year to live?” I’m not currently in danger of succumbing to a physical disease and I don’t engage in a plethora of risky behaviors, so the odds are I’ve got more than a few years left on this planet. Still, what if I knew my death was imminent or even if I was privy to know the date when my life would end? How might my life change? What would I do differently or perhaps for the first time, if I suddenly realized the clock was ticking?
Obeying God
What has God been telling you to do that you have been putting off? It’s okay to admit it; we’ve all been guilty of ignoring God many times in our lives. Even the apostle Paul said that he didn’t do the things he wanted to do, but rather kept doing those things he didn’t want to do (Romans 7:15). Each of us know the things we should be doing to glorify Christ, but more often than not we keep to our old habits and more “comfortable” ways. Who are we to believe that what we are doing is more satisfying than obedience to God? It’s ludicrous and very dangerous to flaunt our freewill in the face of the One who granted it. Yet time and again we play with fire and ignore the commands of Christ in order to continue our greedy and selfish pursuits.