New Life Resolution
I’ve been thinking about how at this time of the year, every single one of us makes a New Year’s resolution. Not only do we make a New Year’s resolution but we put thought and planning into it.
Many of us pray that we make the right decision, a decision that will effect our entire year or perhaps even our entire lIfe.
Most years I make New Year’s resolutions and stick to maybe 10% of the original plan. Sometimes only get about 10% of the things on my list accomplished and sometimes I have everything on my list accomplished but after the year is only about 10% over, I usually give up and go back to the way that I did things the year before.
With lots of thought and prayer I have made up my mind that this year I absolutely refuse to make a New Year’s resolution. Why?
You may be thinking that is a little extreme, But trust me I have put a lot of thought and prayer into this decision.
I do not want to focus on something that will change me for a temporary time. I do not want to focus on a New Year’s resolution, I want to focus on my New Life Resolution..
When I say my New Life Resolution I am not talking about my life here on earth I’m talking about life eternal in the presence of my creator.
I want to concentrate on my new life in the presence of the L-rd.
I looked up what a New Year’s resolution was on the Internet and here is what I found:
Wikipedia makes this statement.
A New Year’s resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere but is also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person makes a promise to do an act of self-improvement or something slightly nice, such as opening doors for people beginning from New Year’s Day.
Wow. Are they actually serious? A tradition in which a person makes a promise to do an act of self improvement or something slightly nice, such as opening doors for people beginning each year on New Year’s Day.
Something slightly nice. Wow, how impressive is this?
People actually make New Year’s resolutions to be slightly nice to other people.
We should be more than slightly nice to people, we should treat them with love, care and compassion and this is not something that we should do as a New Year’s resolution, this is something that we should do automatically because we are Christians.
I want my resolution to be more than a year resolution of treating people slightly nice here on earth. I want my new life resolution to be one that is focused on helping people get to heaven. One that is focused on them being prepared to spending eternity in Heaven.
I am pretty sure that my New Life Resolution does not include being slightly nice to someone.
But It does include killing them with kindness.
It does include being compassionate about the way I treat people.
It does include loving the lovable and the unlovable.
It does include focusing on helping people secure their eternity in the presence of the L-rd.
It does include feeding the homeless.
It does include visiting the jails.
It does include inviting people to church.
But it will never, let me repeat, never include being slightly nice to someone.
Instead of being slightly nice, as Christians, we need to go above and beyond when it comes to how we treat others.
Mark 12:29-31 says:
“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
Ephesians 4:32
“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
Romans 12:10
“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;”
We need to treat others with respect and kindness. You notice I did not say slight respect and slight kindness.
The best gift you can give anyone, is telling them about Jesus.
Sunday night at work I was working side-by-side with one of my partners that I work with. We started talking about or weekends and how we spend them. I told him that my weekends usually consist of going to the jail to minister to people, outreach,fellowship and Church.
We had a good long talk about church and G-d. He shared a story with me that absolutely touched my heart.
A story about a man, two young boys and a fishing trip.
He told me this story that he had heard about a Christian father that had taken his young son and his friend from school on a fishing trip over the weekend.
The friend of his son had a hard home life and they thought that this may be an opportunity to bond with this young man, witness to him and maybe even invite him to church.
While there were on this fishing trip the three of them were out fishing in their boat and the two boys fell overboard.
I don’t know all the details of the story but both boys were drowning in the water.
The father only had the time and the strength to rescue one of the boys.
Which one of the two boys do you think that the father saved?
His own son or his sons friend from school ?
The answer is his sons friend from school.
You may think how could this father not save his own son?
But this father knew that his son was saved and would make it to heaven and he also knew that his sons friend from school did not know Jesus as his savior and he wanted to save him so he could give him an opportunity to be saved.
And opportunity to make a New Life Resolution.
We have to start putting soul winning as our top priority.
My New Life Resolution is to share the love of Christ with every single person that I meet.
I am not personally satisfied with telling people about Jesus when it is convenient, sometimes you have to go out of your way and make it happen.
Going out of the way to tell people about Jesus is my New Life Resolution .
Most of us in ASR are faithful in our attendance to church, but when is the last time we actually invited someone to church.
I’m not talking about inviting somebody to that special service two or three times a year.
I am challenging each and every single one of us to make it our New Life Resolution that we invite somebody new to each and every single service of 2017.
I absolutely love fellowship with other Christians, but I f I truly want to follow my New Life Resolution, we need to take this message that we believe in to all the world.
ASR does this as a church but what about us as individuals?
If it comes to fellowship with the saints or witnessing to the sinners, which will we choose. I will choose the sinner.
The year 2017 will have no New Years resolutions for me. Instead I am choosing a New Life Resolution.
A decision that will start now and will not end every year on New Year’s Eve.
Let us, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Mark 16:15 KJV
This is my New Life Resolution.
Re. Jim Curley
National Vice President
Azusa StreetRiders
Latest posts by Jim Curley (see all)
- 2017 National Rally – Are You Ready? - February 28, 2017
- New Life Resolution - December 26, 2016
- A Big Welcome to our New Coordinators - October 28, 2016