Resolutions? - Resolved!

                  

                      "You crown the year with Your goodness." - Psalm 65:11 NKJ

I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions.  It seems to me that as a need to adjust something in our life;  our doing, our thinking, our habits, etc., comes to light we should start right there at that point and time to facilitate a change.  Some adjustments come easy.  Some are a struggle.  Some we start, give up, back off, and circle back to at another point in time.

 

If one is to take on the task of resolutions for the New Year, I suggest we ask what they should be outside of our selves.  Not what we think, what we yearn for.  But rather what change or addition will please the Lord.  Certainly, this is a daily task as we endeavor to mirror Christ in our lives.  But all too often it gets pushed and shoved into a corner.  Forgotten and neglected.  Sometimes we purposefully avoid it like the plague, because we know there are changes that need to be made that we just aren't ready to make.  We get complacent and content.

 

Thankfully, we who have Christ don't have to wonder what we should resolve to do!  We have God's Word to learn and know His will.  We have the Holy Spirit to lead us, guide us, show us where we need to apply it and how.

 

"And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power."  Col. 2:10 KJV

 

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned....But we have the mind of Christ."  1 Corinthians 2:14-16 NIV

 

The mind of Christ!!  We can look at things, people, thoughts, ideals, situations as Christ does.  You cannot see things as Christ views them and still deal with them, react to them, think of them the same as before.

 

Take the plunge!  Don't dawdle on resolutions.  Resolve to become the new creature He intends you to be!  How?  Would you have more of Christ?

 

"...Then learn to know him better and better.  For as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life:  he even share his own glory and his own goodness with us!  And by that same mighty power he has given us all the other rich and wonderful blessings he promised; for instance, the promise to save us from the lust and rottenness all around us, and to give us his own character."  2 Peter 1:2&3  TLB

 

If you are a child of the King it is there for the asking!  Oh, it won't just fall on you.  You have to progress and grow.  But he helps us every step of the way!

 

"But to obtain these gifts you will need more than faith;"  -  Faith is essential.  It is the cornerstone.  Without it you cannot accept Christ as Savior.  Doesn't take a lot.  Grain of mustard seed size will do.  But it is a necessary ingredient.  No faith, no salvation.  No salvation, no indwelling Holy Spirit.  No Holy Spirit, no growth.....for all this is foolishness. 

 

"you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough."  -  Being good.  Good works.  A godly lifestyle.  Virtue and modesty. 

 

"For then you must learn to know God better and discover what he wants you to do" - That love relationship with God.  Spending time in his Word.  Spending time with his people.  Spending time in prayer.  Spending time quiet and still enough to hear his reply.

 

"Next, learn to put aside your own desires..."  -  Self control.  Temperance.  Reigning in your emotions.  Thoughtfully and prayerfully responding instead of knee-jerk reacting.

 

"...so that you will become patient and godly, gladly letting God have his way with you."  -  Self denial.  No longer all about Me.  Patience.  I can wait until God's perfect timing.  Sacrifice.  Me, my time, my desires, my talents and abilities are not mine...they are his.

 

"This will make possible the next step which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply." - It starts with simple kindness.  Courtesy.  And it grows until we begin to love others and see others as Christ loves and sees.

 

"The more you go on in this way, the more you will grow strong spiritually and become fruitful and useful to our Lord Jesus Christ."  2 Peter 1:5-8 TLB -  Doing his will.  Making a difference.  A difference in lives around you.  Being a witness, a living testimony.  Bringing others to know the Lord.

 

Resolutions?  No.  Resolved?  YES! 

 

"I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delights.  Things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my sight!  I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free!  Jesus, greatest highest I will come to thee.

 

I am resolved and who will go with me? Come friend without delay.  Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit, we'll walk the Heavenly way!"

 

              

 

 

Tags: Mind of Christ, Psalm65:11, 2Peter1