The New Year

Colossians 2:6-7,  "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and over flowing with thankfulness."

      Many New Year's resolutions fall into the categories of: losing some weight, eating a more healthy diet, exercising more often, or, possibly, stopping some bad habit such as smoking or biting one's nails or losing one's temper.  And it's a good thing to make resolutions. 

Someone has well said,  "If we aim at nothing, we will hit it every time!"  In one way it's discouraging to be setting the same goals year after year, but, hopefully, as we keep trying we'll see some improvement from the year before and the year before that.  Someone put it this way,  "I'm not what I want to be, but I'm not what I used to be either."

      While many of the goals we set for a new year are physical ones, it's also a good idea to set some spiritual goals to aid in growing more Christ like year after year.  Such goals might be: to determine to have a quiet time everyday; to read the Bible all the way through during the year ( a one year Bible is a great help toward accomplishing this goal); memorizing Scripture during the year; writing down each day some of the thoughts and prayers you have during your quiet time; worshiping regularly with other believers; singing in the choir or teaching a Sunday School class or helping in the church in other ways according to your spiritual gifts; perhaps joining a Bible study; deepening your prayer life; reading spiritually inspiring literature. 

We will never, in this imperfect world, become all we would like to be but, by God's grace and striving toward godly goals, we will become more like our Savior year by year.

Father, this year I want to grow in grace and in the knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ, to become more and more like Him.  Amen.