Now Is Not the Time to Talk About Resolutions, Just Revolutions!
Don’t worry, I’m not fomenting rebellion or a call to arms. I am after much bigger game than that. God came after me and continues to pursue a deeper, more intimate relationship with me, and I can promise He is after you too. Know how I know?
I Timothy 2:1-4
1First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone— 2for kings and all those in authority—so that we may lead tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. 3This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Being into the new year a few weeks already, we’ve already seen that we (most of us) can’t keep our own resolutions. If we are losing weight as a new goal, we probably aren’t losing as fast as we’d hoped. If you are making progress, I commend you. If you are not, join the rest of us who are renegotiating our contract with ourselves to keep hope alive!
Point is – we not only do a perfect job keeping our own goals and self-imposed, improvement-oriented boundaries; but also we don’t do a perfect job keeping all of God’s commandments either. God knows that and still wants us to be truthful, admit when we are wrong to Him and at times to those we’ve wronged, and to be forgiven. He wants us transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ His Son.
Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 8:29
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
Do you see what I mean by going after “bigger game” or more consequential outcomes? God wants you forgiven and free to become a person made in His image as His creation AND whose character and destiny are the same as His Son’s. Jesus wants us to be like Him in love and truth. He wants us to join Him in the Father’s forever family. You can. Jesus made it possible. In this New Year of life, don’t stop until you find the Way, the Truth, and the Life you were designed to find. It all starts with faith in Jesus Christ, continues in obedience to His commands to love, and ends in a forever connection in heaven with Him and all others who come to rely on Jesus for forgiveness.
You and I are to become temples of the Spirit of God, Who is a person, not just a force. He lives and wants to be inside you now and forever. You are a temple. Jesus cleansed the temple in Jerusalem of the corruption and will cleanse our temple too. God is making us ready for heaven not by healing all our ills but by conforming us to Christ’s likeness in life, in love, in purpose, and in power.
Join us. Will you? You won’t be disappointed.