The New Year is almost upon us. As is often the case, we find ourselves standing on the precipice of the potential and promise of another 365 days, wondering where the previous 365 have gone and how they went so quickly, while wishing we’d done more with the time that has passed. In an effort to better utilize the time available, many of us make New Year Resolutions. Perhaps you have been contemplating whether or not you will make resolutions of your own, but need a little help getting the process moving. Here is a list of some of the most popular resolutions from according to data compiled by Google.
- Get Healthy
- Get Organized
- Live Life to the Fullest
- Learn a New Hobby
- Spend Less/Save More
- Travel
- Read More
- (Insert Your Resolution Here)
We all have things we hope to accomplish in the days ahead, but where does Christ fit into all of this?
Many of us start the New Year with the greatest of intentions. We want to change our diet or exercise more. We want to remove the clutter from our schedules, our offices, our homes. We want to find ways to use our free time more productively. We want to be better stewards of our financial resources. We want to experience more that life has to offer in the limited time we have available. There is something about the ending of one calendar and moving onto another that reminds us that time is a limited resource and we need to use it wisely. In Psalms 90:12 we read the words of Moses, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” We are never more desperate or determined to live our lives well than when we are aware of how short they are.
We all have things we hope to accomplish in the days ahead, but where does Jesus fit into it all? Does He have a place and a part to play in your life? Every year I hear people talk with urgency about bettering themselves and bettering the world, but without Jesus all of our work is a temporary fix to a permanent problem. In his book Don’t Waste Your Life, Dr. John Piper writes of a plaque that hung on the kitchen of his boyhood home. It read, “Only one life; Twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
Only when we infuse the power of the gospel into our plans and purposes do they have the power to extend beyond the here and now and into eternity.
Even if we are able to keep our resolutions for the limited number of days we live, the impact and effect they are able to have is limited. Only when we infuse the power of the gospel into our plans and purposes do they have the power to extend beyond the here and now and into eternity. As we turn the page and begin a new calendar let’s resolve to get the gospel into our hearts so that we can better live it out in the world, making changes that will last our lifetimes and beyond.
