I AM RESOLVED!

A brand-New Year was ushered in a few days ago, and with it an annual self-check accompanied by personal resolutions. Gym memberships soar to a yearly high as multitudes of couch potatoes decide to do something about their poor physical condition. Others, who won’t hit the gym are resolved to avoid hitting the refrigerator as much. Still others decide that it’s time to stop spending more than they are earning. The sad news is that most of these the attempts at change will fall by the wayside before January runs its’ course.  Be that as it may, I would like to suggest a resolution, which if followed will bring about positive improvements in all the areas I mentioned and many more, particularly one’s spiritual condition. The one simple resolution that could accomplish this has two parts. The first entails a devout study of Holy Scripture each and every day. This provides the right direction for a godly life. The second is harder, it involes submitting to the Word of God (obedience). The apostle James taught that Christian’s are to be obedient “doers of the Word”,  not “hearers only” (James 1:22). Peter also wrote about God’s expectations for his children:“Therefore, having the loins of your understanding girded with temperance, wait perfectly in the grace that is presented unto you when Jesus, the Christ, is manifested unto you, as obedient sons, not conforming yourselves with the former desires that you had before in your ignorance, but as he who has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; (1 Peter 1:13-15). What about you? Do you desire to see God work to bring about lasting changes in your life? Changes for your own good, and the good of others whom you will affect, by the example of your Christian walk. If so, dive into the Word of God and dig out the precious truths you will discover there. Then, as you rely upon the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to put them into practice, you will press on toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ (Philippians 3:14).                                                                                                                                 

I am resolved no longer to linger,
Charmed by the world’s delight,
Things that are higher, things that are nobler,
These have allured my sight.               

I am resolved to follow the Savior,
Faithful and true each day;
Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth,
He is the living Way.

God bless,

Pastor Tom