5 Resolutions Every Christian Needs To Make This Year
5. Resolve to love your neighbors
With he election in the rear view mirror and stress of the holidays being over, now is the time to reflect and see who you may have less than Christian towards. Perhaps it was a person who voted for the candidate that repulsed you. Perhaps it was the person that insulted you over a turkey leg. The new year provides a new beginning to our own lives and our neighbors. Start 2017 out right by caring for others even if they might not reciprocate the love.
… these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:13)
4. Resolve to forgive
No doubt many have been insulted or worse in 2016 but do not let unforgiveness rob you of your joy in 2017. A heart that forgives is a heart that lives. Do not let the cancer of unforgiveness grow. Even if the other party is not ready to forgive you it is important to forgive them and offer a chance to do the same. Cancer research centers actually have programs to help treat unforgiveness as it is now known that the feelings related to unforgiveness can make a person sick.
Do not let this turn into a sickness.
3. Resolve to personal growth
Are you standing in the same spiritual place right now that you were in at the start of 2016? For many the answer is yes. Spiritual growth is difficult. People have jobs, families, young ones to take care of. Where is the time for personal growth?
The fact is that personal growth is more than taking time out of our days to meditate on the scripture or prayer; it is a state of operation. Throughout the day we have pockets of time. Whether it’s waiting to pick the kids up at school or eating a burrito at lunch, we all have snippets of time that we can use.
Additionally, we do need to set a set time aside each day. Just like going to the gym, once we get into the habit of doing it we will feel starved without it. If you can do 30 minutes a day then do it. If you can only do 5 minutes then do it. Those 5 minutes each day is more than enough for God to help re-center you.
2. Resolve to emptying the trash
If you are like me then sometimes you take the trash out when it is no longer possible to squish the heap lower into the can and it’s not possible to add anything on top without it falling out. Sadly, our lives get like this also. We fill our schedule with time wasting events. We fill our lives with relationships that bring us down. We spend our money on things that we will never use. It’s time to take all of the trash out and stop smashing the top of the garbage heap.
If you have a relationship that it toxic, let it go. If you have calendar events that are unnecessary and always leave you feeling worse than when you got there, delete them. If you have a closet full of clothes or a shelf full of gadgets that you don’t need or use, give them away to someone who needs them. Un-clutter your life.
1. Resolve to not merely looking in the mirror
James, the brother of Jesus said,
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. (James 1:23-25)
We all know our own flaws. We know the areas in our lives that we mask rather than fix. There are areas that we know we must surrender yet we do not. In this coming year do not merely listen to God’s instructions for your life but do them.
[Featured image from time.com]