New Year's Resolutions Centered on Christ!

 The New Year is quickly approaching, and like most of you I'm thinking about a New Year's Resolution. Maybe I'll get back in shape (the round shape I have taken on is no longer to my liking). Maybe I should lose 5-20lbs. I would like to make more money, or spend more time with my family. All of those are great resolutions, not very original, but good none the less.

  As I think about those though, I realize they are all about me and I have no resolutions that center on Christ.

 We look at the New Year as a clean slate, a new beginning, a chance to right wrongs, and a chance to hit the ground running, but hasn't Jesus Christ already done that?

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (ESV)

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸ All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling  the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

  Did you get that!? It's not the New Year we should be looking at, it's the New Life that God has given us we should be rejoicing in. God has given us a new heart and our old life has passed away. What if I look at those resolutions through the Cross and then carry them out with the new heart that God has given me?

  I will spend more time investing in my family, loving, encouraging, shepherding, and praying for and with them to the glory of God. Not because of me, but because that is what Jesus did, and does for me.

  I will use the talents that God has given me to provide for my family. Not because I need or want anything more, but because God has given me talents to bless my family so we can bless others.

  I will take care of the body that God has given me. Not because my jeans are getting tighter and I want an appearance acceptable to anyone, but because God now sees me with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and I want to be that strong warrior for God that can run the race He has set before me.

  God hasn't just given us a new heart, it has been filled with the power of God (Holy Spirit) and sealed. The same power that enabled Christ to resurrect from the dead. Jesus has taken from us the sin that weights us down and keeps us slaves (how's that for weight loss).

 So this New Years I pray that when you make your resolutions, you center them on Christ and what he has done and does for you. If we can do that we can't fail, because God is perfect.

Live for the Glory of God and have a Happy (and safe) New Year!

Jason