WHAT SPIRITUAL RESOLUTIONS DO YOU HAVE FOR THE YEAR 2020?
People have New Year resolutions, a firm decision to do or not to do something. Most of these resolutions are not kept very long. Should Christians make resolutions? Can they not say that they have the word of God and that it is enough. Christians should continually make resolutions for that very reason. One reason why the church is so weak is that God’s people do not resolve in their hearts to pay heed to the word. The person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it. To live an aimless Christian life is to live a wasted life. |||||| To make resolutions is Biblical. JOSHUA in his speech to Israel at the end of His life asked the people to choose who they would serve. And in Josh 24:15 we read his own resolution: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. PAUL in 1Cor 2:1-2 says that he resolved to know nothing among the Corinthians except Christ and Him crucified.JESUS set His face to go to Jerusalem, we read in Luke 9:59, towards the cross. |||||| Some may describe such resolved and determined Christianity as fanatical. This is not fanatical. Rather it is God-honouring and Bible-based Christianity, which can be described as radical Christianity. Radical, like Noah, Abraham, Moses’ parents, Moses himself mentioned in Heb 11, and like the nameless others mentioned at the end of that chapter. They suffered persecution because they resolved in their hearts to walk with God regardless of the consequences, knowing that it was the only way to live. If we do not resolve to live for Him, we will end up using our energy in other pursuits and giving God only the crumbs. Matt 7:21 and Matt16:24-25 are sobering. ||||||| WHAT IS OUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION Are we satisfied to give Him a little bit here and a little bit there, for after all we are saved by grace and not by works, and we are on our way to heaven. If we feel that way, then we should not be too sure that we are on our way to heaven.
We should resolve in our heart to observe Matt 6:33. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The Amplified Version puts renders it this way: “But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.” This text takes all that God desires and squeezes it into a precious nutshell. This is the key to life, lived for God in a sinful world. |||||| PRIORITY: SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS In the order of life, God and His kingdom comes first. What does that look like. It looks like what Jesus said to the man who said, “Let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus told him to be His disciple first of all. Jesus was not telling him to neglect his father. Jesus in Matt 10 says Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. Jesus has the interest of our families at heart, but He must be first. Matt 22:27-28 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. Like the chorus goes: ‘He is my everything, He is my all.’ Putting Him first will show in the way we use the Lord’s day. |||||| PROMISE: AND ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE ADDED TO YOU This kingdom has a king, King Jesus. He has subjects who have been purchased by His precious blood. Subjects of this kingdom, have come in through faith in King Jesus, not because of what they have done, but because of what He has done. They have been born of the will of God John 1:14. They must give King Jesus and His Kingdom first priority in their lives.
The promise to such is that everything else will be taken care of. You may say that if you make Him first priority, it will cost you your marriage or your job or even your life (in some parts of the world). Do you believe what Jesus has promised, that He will take care of everything? Either Jesus is a liar or Satan is a liar. Are we saying, “I am sorry Lord, but I cannot trust you”? If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all. |||||| May we resolve thus: This day I covenant with You to put You first in everything that I do, by your help and with your grace.
Are you afraid that you will mess it up. The Lord knows you make messes, so when you do, pick yourself up, dust yourself down and continue. |||||| Peter said, “See we have left everything and followed You.” And Jesus made this wonderful promise to him: “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:29-30)