Alright everyone, how many of you have already made your New Year's Resolutions that you know you will not be keeping? HaHa...I know right. This is a time in which we always seem to stress some sort of renewal in how we live our lives. Most of the time they deal with losing weight, exercising more, reading more books, or managing our money better. Maybe others set goals for their work and school. But, no matter how hard we try in the beginning, we usually fail. And you know what, that's ok. We are human.
Is it not great to know that we have a Savior who looks beyond our imperfections if we truly belong to Him? Even with all the things we try to do, we will still fall short of the glory of God. But, the true message of Grace covers a multitude of failures. The bible is full of individuals who strived to serve God to their best ability, and yet had their own shortcomings. David's lust, Peter's denial, Abraham's lies, and Moses' inability to follow directions are just a few examples of true powerhouses for God, that were still human and made their mistakes.
There seems to be a misconception among some that Christians can reach a point to which they no longer sin. I have had discussions with many of these individuals and still fall back to this verse:
Romans 3:10
"as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one."
and...
1 John 1:8
"If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us."
So what do we do? Do we just give up because we will mess up? Absolutely not! Our purpose in life is to serve God, and to try to be Christ-like as much as possible. We still must push forward to the prize that is before us. This life is short compared to the eternity that we have before us, and the reward in heaven is great. We have a job to do, and even though we will make mistakes, we must continue on in our witness of Christ to the world. If we sit back and do nothing, think of all the opportunities we will have to share Christ that will never happen.
So.....what does all of this have to do with the new year you ask? How about a New Year's resolution that focuses on something you are going to try to do for God, instead of yourself.
Psalm 98:1
"O sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done wonderful things, His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him."
I challenge all of you to come up with a new year's resolution for the Lord. Even if we fail, He will still win the victory. It can do nothing but strengthen us and our witness for Him, and bring honor and glory to Him. And not because we are anything great, but because who we serve is!
Thanks for reading, and I pray God's blessings on you all in 2015!
Showing posts with label New Year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Year. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Monday, December 31, 2012
Thoughts for the New Year
Is it just me or has 2012 flown by? It seems to have come and gone in a whirlwind, and left many of us wondering at what all has happened over the past year. Did we accomplish our goals that we set out to do? Did we make a difference somehow in this world that we live? Many times a lot of us make new resolutions for what we want to accomplish in the upcoming year. Things that we hope will last more than a week, when in reality they don't. Still, we have this hope for future things. And as Christians, we sometimes find ourselves asking what can we do this year? And, can we stick to it? It all seems to focus around change. Yet, there is always a fear of the unknown when change comes around.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
"For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."
This verse really rings true to any believer. In whatever we plan to be different for this year, God already knows about it. And as long as we are seeking His will in our lives as the driving force for the changes that we want to make, we have no reason to fear. All of us were born with a purpose. A purpose designed by God before the creation of the world. He knows our beginning, our end, and everything in between. And the plans are for our own good. Contrary to what you may hear from some people, everything that happens in our lives is for our good. God does not delight in bad things happening to us. He has a future for us, and that should give us hope for what is to come. And when we pray, He listens. When we seek Him with all of our heart, we will find Him.
So now that we have no reason to fear this new beginning, what now? I have three things that I believe will help us as we look forward to 2013.
1. Forget the Past
Philippians 3:13-14
"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Whatever has happened last year, be it good or bad, it is in the past. We cannot go back and change what has happened in our lives. Many people spend a lot of time dwelling on this. A famous quote I hear a lot "If I knew then, what I know now" comes to mind. That is a chapter in our lives that has come to a close. We must leave it in the past and reach forward to the future and what God has prepared for us in it. There are new challenges, new opportunities for service, and new blessings on the horizon. In the end, there is a robe and a crown of life waiting on us. That is what we are working toward. We must live each day with the end in site. Thinking of heaven makes every little thing that happens here seem not worth worrying about.
2. Wait on the Lord
Isaiah 40:31
"Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary."
We must understand that things will happen in God's timing and not our own. His plan has been laid out in our lives, and nothing is going to change that. We must take comfort in that, and let God lead. Many times we tend to take matters into our own hands. Because lets face it, none of us are very patient people in this day and time. I know that I am not. And when we do, we tend to make a mess of things. But God has a time and place set aside for everything. And His timing is perfect.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
"He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end."
3. Treat Each New Day as a Special Gift
Lamentations 3:22-24
"The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”
Each new day is just that, a new day. And each new day is a gift from God. His love, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, grace extend to us brand new each day. He is always there for us. So, we likewise, need to be there for Him each and every day. How can we do this? We need to talk to Him, seek Him, and search for ways to serve Him. We should be in a constant state of prayer. Yes, He already knows what is on our hearts. But, it is still important for us to pray. Because our faith is based on a relationship. And you cannot have a good relationship when one party is not communicating. We seek His will in our lives by reading and studying our bibles. The scripture is a written account of how He wants us to live. If we try to model our lives based on these scriptures, we find ourselves drawing closer to His will in our lives. Lastly, we need to serve. Our main commandment is to witness to the lost. This is not only done by the conversations that we have with others, but in the way that we live. Our actions show who we truly are. They are our biggest witness to this world. We need to share the good news of His birth, and His death for all of our sins.
Perhaps you may be reading this today, and have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. If not, all of the hope that is mentioned above is not in your life. For without Christ we have no hope. I urge you to seek Him. He can take anything that you are going through right now, and turn it around. He can take your life and give you hope.
2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
He is the only one that can do this for you. If you are seeking, I encourage you to click the tab at the top of this page for the Plan of Salvation. Read through this, as it explains the need that we have for Christ.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading this devotion, and I hope that it helps with the hope of this new year. I pray God will bless you all in 2013!
Jeremiah 29:11-13
"For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."
This verse really rings true to any believer. In whatever we plan to be different for this year, God already knows about it. And as long as we are seeking His will in our lives as the driving force for the changes that we want to make, we have no reason to fear. All of us were born with a purpose. A purpose designed by God before the creation of the world. He knows our beginning, our end, and everything in between. And the plans are for our own good. Contrary to what you may hear from some people, everything that happens in our lives is for our good. God does not delight in bad things happening to us. He has a future for us, and that should give us hope for what is to come. And when we pray, He listens. When we seek Him with all of our heart, we will find Him.
So now that we have no reason to fear this new beginning, what now? I have three things that I believe will help us as we look forward to 2013.
1. Forget the Past
Philippians 3:13-14
"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Whatever has happened last year, be it good or bad, it is in the past. We cannot go back and change what has happened in our lives. Many people spend a lot of time dwelling on this. A famous quote I hear a lot "If I knew then, what I know now" comes to mind. That is a chapter in our lives that has come to a close. We must leave it in the past and reach forward to the future and what God has prepared for us in it. There are new challenges, new opportunities for service, and new blessings on the horizon. In the end, there is a robe and a crown of life waiting on us. That is what we are working toward. We must live each day with the end in site. Thinking of heaven makes every little thing that happens here seem not worth worrying about.
2. Wait on the Lord
Isaiah 40:31
"Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary."
We must understand that things will happen in God's timing and not our own. His plan has been laid out in our lives, and nothing is going to change that. We must take comfort in that, and let God lead. Many times we tend to take matters into our own hands. Because lets face it, none of us are very patient people in this day and time. I know that I am not. And when we do, we tend to make a mess of things. But God has a time and place set aside for everything. And His timing is perfect.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
"He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end."
3. Treat Each New Day as a Special Gift
Lamentations 3:22-24
"The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”
Each new day is just that, a new day. And each new day is a gift from God. His love, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, grace extend to us brand new each day. He is always there for us. So, we likewise, need to be there for Him each and every day. How can we do this? We need to talk to Him, seek Him, and search for ways to serve Him. We should be in a constant state of prayer. Yes, He already knows what is on our hearts. But, it is still important for us to pray. Because our faith is based on a relationship. And you cannot have a good relationship when one party is not communicating. We seek His will in our lives by reading and studying our bibles. The scripture is a written account of how He wants us to live. If we try to model our lives based on these scriptures, we find ourselves drawing closer to His will in our lives. Lastly, we need to serve. Our main commandment is to witness to the lost. This is not only done by the conversations that we have with others, but in the way that we live. Our actions show who we truly are. They are our biggest witness to this world. We need to share the good news of His birth, and His death for all of our sins.
Perhaps you may be reading this today, and have never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. If not, all of the hope that is mentioned above is not in your life. For without Christ we have no hope. I urge you to seek Him. He can take anything that you are going through right now, and turn it around. He can take your life and give you hope.
2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
He is the only one that can do this for you. If you are seeking, I encourage you to click the tab at the top of this page for the Plan of Salvation. Read through this, as it explains the need that we have for Christ.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading this devotion, and I hope that it helps with the hope of this new year. I pray God will bless you all in 2013!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Starting Things Anew
Happy New Years everyone!!!!!!!!! 2011 brought many joys and some sorrows to my life. I am thankful to make it through to another year. I was blessed when my wife gave birth to our third child, Lauren. She was a band-aid on broken hearts as 2010 left us with two miscarriages. I am blessed to still be employed in a rocky economy, and I was blessed to start this blog in January of last year. Writing here on this page has really increased my focus on God, and what He wants from me here on this earth. I pray that God will continue to bless me in writing this blog, and that He will use it to His glory, and not mine.
Traditionally, everyone this year likes to come up with a New Year's resolution. Something that we are going to try better to do this year, that we could not do last year. While viewing the news last week, a learned of a poll that was done that said that 85% of people quit on their resolution in the first month, and 90% never make it past the second month. I can honestly say that I am in the 85% group that never makes it past the first month. I have finally got to the point that I did not make them anymore. But, I noticed that all of them were of a physical nature. I wanted to lose weight, exercise more, eat healthier, etc. All things that I tried to do on my own for me. There was never any inclusion of God in what I was doing. So I decided to do things a little differently a year or two ago. Instead, I just try to take a good honest look at my spiritual life, and see where I need the most work, and do my best to work on it that year. And I pray for God's guidance and help to get me through. Is it always easy, no, absolutely not. Will I fail? I will probably make many mistakes along the way, and there will be consequences I am sure. But, I know that God is right there with me.
This caused me to think on the story of King David. The first time we see David is in 1 Samuel 16. He was hand picked by God to become King of Israel. David was faithful to God. He demonstrated that in the killing of Goliath in chapter 17 of that same book as well as the rest of 1 Samuel and the beginning of 2 Samuel. However, in chapter 11 of 2 Samuel, we see David fall. It is here that he falls to sin in the murder of Uriah and the affair with Bathsheba. This was certainly not a good time in David's life. We see his punishment with all that happens in his family afterwards. However, David does ask for forgiveness. He asked God for His help. And God was faithful. And because of this, David was able to persevere through his trials.
God will help you through things that are going on in your life.
Philippians 4:11-13
"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
To those who are lost, there is a promise.
Romans 10:9-11
"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”"
And once you are truly saved, you will be forever new.
2 Corinthians 5:16-18
"Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,"
So, with this new year, will you choose to make God a part of your resolution this year? If you are lost, and seeking God, I encourage you to click the link at the top of this page for the Plan of Salvation. If you are a believer, I hope that this will help you set good goals this year to help in your walk with God.
Thanks for reading and God Bless you all in 2012!
Traditionally, everyone this year likes to come up with a New Year's resolution. Something that we are going to try better to do this year, that we could not do last year. While viewing the news last week, a learned of a poll that was done that said that 85% of people quit on their resolution in the first month, and 90% never make it past the second month. I can honestly say that I am in the 85% group that never makes it past the first month. I have finally got to the point that I did not make them anymore. But, I noticed that all of them were of a physical nature. I wanted to lose weight, exercise more, eat healthier, etc. All things that I tried to do on my own for me. There was never any inclusion of God in what I was doing. So I decided to do things a little differently a year or two ago. Instead, I just try to take a good honest look at my spiritual life, and see where I need the most work, and do my best to work on it that year. And I pray for God's guidance and help to get me through. Is it always easy, no, absolutely not. Will I fail? I will probably make many mistakes along the way, and there will be consequences I am sure. But, I know that God is right there with me.
This caused me to think on the story of King David. The first time we see David is in 1 Samuel 16. He was hand picked by God to become King of Israel. David was faithful to God. He demonstrated that in the killing of Goliath in chapter 17 of that same book as well as the rest of 1 Samuel and the beginning of 2 Samuel. However, in chapter 11 of 2 Samuel, we see David fall. It is here that he falls to sin in the murder of Uriah and the affair with Bathsheba. This was certainly not a good time in David's life. We see his punishment with all that happens in his family afterwards. However, David does ask for forgiveness. He asked God for His help. And God was faithful. And because of this, David was able to persevere through his trials.
God will help you through things that are going on in your life.
Philippians 4:11-13
"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
To those who are lost, there is a promise.
Romans 10:9-11
"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”"
And once you are truly saved, you will be forever new.
2 Corinthians 5:16-18
"Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,"
So, with this new year, will you choose to make God a part of your resolution this year? If you are lost, and seeking God, I encourage you to click the link at the top of this page for the Plan of Salvation. If you are a believer, I hope that this will help you set good goals this year to help in your walk with God.
Thanks for reading and God Bless you all in 2012!
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