New year resolutions

As the year closes out many are preparing for a better new year, looking forward too a better tomorrow making resolutions and hoping to see a brighter future than the days they just came through.

Some of us will make resolutions to loose weight, be financially free, get in better shape, finish our education, the list is endless on the things people resolve too do year after year. While it is grand to have goals and to work at them our goals should not be just about us.

I would challenge each of us too make a resolution that we are unable too do on our own, that without God’s help we will definitely fail.

The 1st part of that resolution would be this.

Love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, your soul and your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.

This  will take God’s help for us too seek Him and lay aside our agenda daily.

To love God this way means we need to seek Him in prayer, in His word, in fellowship, in how we work, rest, and play, in our relationship with others, how we serve Him, how we live our lives moment by moment, responding to whatever comes our way in faith, living in His truths and walking in His ways, doing all things to bring glory to His name.

And then to love our neighbors as ourselves, this means that if someone has a need and your able to help them you should, starting with caring for their soul. 

If you’re up for the challenge to lay aside selfish ambitions and pray to God to renew your soul and let Him do great works in you and through you this year will be the grandest year of your life.

Be the light that shines through the darkness this new year, be the beacon of hope people need to see. In an age where everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes, let them see God’s grace, hope,peace and love in us.

““You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:14-16 CSB

“He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Matthew 22:37-40 CSB

“He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

2 Timothy 1:9 CSB

Why celebrate Christmas?

God the Father has a purpose for every person ever born, He created each of us individually and He alone knows our hearts desires, our thoughts, our fears and our future. 

We are created for more than this, we are created for an eternal loving God, who wants to be with us.

We can’t get to the Father though unless we come through Christ.

God the Son came because the Father sent Him for this purpose:

““This is my servant; I strengthen him, this is my chosen one; I delight in him. I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring justice to the nations. He will not cry out or shout or make his voice heard in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick; he will faithfully bring justice. He will not grow weak or be discouraged until he has established justice on earth. The coasts and islands will wait for his instruction.” This is what God, the Lord, says — who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it — “I am the Lord. I have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will hold you by your hand. I will watch over you, and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, in order to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness from the prison house. I am the Lord. That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. The past events have indeed happened. Now I declare new events; I announce them to you before they occur.””

Isaiah 42:1-9 CSB

The purpose of Christmas is not too just celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, the purpose is to celebrate that God loves us so much, that He sent His one and only Son to mankind to save us from our sins, from the beginning God had a purpose for everything and everyone, He desires to have a relationship with you and I.

Let us desire too have a relationship with Him through Christ Jesus, God is love, and He wants to give that love too you.

God’s gift of love is freely given, if you haven’t received it yet, why not? 

Why would you turn down the greatest gift of all?

This Christmas receive the love of God, ask Him and He will give too you freely.

“For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. “ John 3:16-18 CSB