I recently heard Andy Stanley speak about goals and resolutions. His premise was 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.
priorities
The Promise of a Fresh Start
How will you serve Jesus in the year ahead? In what ways will your life reflect the love and character of God? What new disciplines will you implement to facilitate your spiritual growth? We are a people given to new beginnings and New Year’s resolutions. There is something exciting in being given a clean slate, an opportunity to begin again from scratch. We don’t need the beginning of a New Year for this; we can choose a fresh start at any time. Still, when the New Year does roll around, most begin excitedly thinking and planning for the possibilities the next year might hold. This is a great time to honestly evaluate your walk with Christ and prayerfully consider how you might better serve Him in the year to come.
Are You Denying Jesus or Satan?
Albert Schweitzer said, “Day by day we should weigh what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed.” Every day we should consider what parts of our life we are dedicating to the spirit of this world (Satan) and which parts we are surrendering to Christ. Too much of my time, and I suspect yours as well, is given to the things of this world and not to the mission of Jesus. This isn’t a situation that is easily remedied. We have spent years buying into the lies of the devil, subscribing to cultural myths and standards, while relegating God to an unassuming place in the background.
The Object of our Prayers
If you’re like me, too many of your prayers revolve around you. We pray for success, for safety, to acquire something we desire. In fact, we spend so much time asking God for things that we rarely have time to hear what He wants to say to us. Not enough prayer time is spent in silence, just listening. For me, many failed attempts at sitting quietly to just listen to God have been hijacked by intruding thoughts that prompt me to utter yet another request. Who then is the true object of our prayers? Is it us or is it God? [Read more…] about The Object of our Prayers
Love God Hate Sin
Here’s an obvious statement: followers of Jesus love God and hate sin. That’s something with which I think all believers would agree. Now for a maybe not so obvious question: “If it’s true we love God and hate sin, why don’t we live like it is true?” To love God and hate sin is easy for us to say. Demonstrating it on a consistent basis gets a bit dicey. We sometimes demonstrate our love for God, just as we occasionally demonstrate our hatred for sin. Until we reach a point where we regularly demonstrate these two truths in our everyday lives, it may be fair to question whether or not we are true disciples of Jesus.