As always happens with a new year, everyone is focused on goals. You know, those ones you had every intention of achieving but fell short last year. Somehow the change of the year presents itself as a fresh start, beckoning like a siren’s song full of assurances – of promises finally fulfilled and goals easily attained. This year will be different! This year I will finally reach that mark of success!
So what is your focus for the new year? Statistically, more people are concerned about weight and fitness for their New Year’s resolutions than any other thing. Secondly is job or money related issues. All these things are noble causes which do require attention on our part. Yet, the statistics reveal something about us.
For while bodily training is of some value, Godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
I Timothy 4:8
Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34
Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…
Matthew 6:33
Although it is true I am getting in shape and loosing a few pounds (and these are important issues that even affect our walk in the Kingdom), I refuse to allow such issues to be the primary focus of my life. For the new year, I want to take it to a new level in my walk with God. At the end of the year, I plan to be more mature, more stable, more solid in the Word of God then ever before. Why do I feel so assured that this is not just another pie-in-the-sky forget-it-by-February resolution? Because last year I had the very same goal! And the year before. And the year before. Alas, the process continues!
We are all growing, seeking, maturing. We are all walking a path, experiencing our journey in the Kingdom of God. Sharing what we learn and imparting it to others is vital to the Kingdom. Please understand this: the body of Christ needs the body of Christ. None of us are so mature that we have need of no one. Not you. Not me. Not the most mature among us. We all need each other for strength and maturity. (I Corinthians 12:17-20)
As we turn our backs on the wide gate (Matthew 7:13), never once glancing back as it grows ever dimmer in our past, let us now join our journeys together as we venture down the narrow path in 2017. Along the way, I will share with you some of those moments when God “opened the eyes of my understanding” (Ephesians 1:18). We will encourage each other in rocky valleys and rejoice together when peaking the mountaintops. And through it all, may the body of Christ be strengthened and equipped to bear fruit in every good work (II Corinthians 9:8, Colossians 1:10).
