New Years Reso-what?  Sunday, January 08, 2012

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I heard a message recently. One of those, "it's a new year...be more committed to Jesus" messages. Very common the first Sunday of the new year. The encouragement was to take a step closer to serving Jesus this new year. Read your Bible more, pray more, go to church more. Do this and that for Christ. All sounded pretty good except for one minor problem. It was the wrong thing to do.

 

What??? Yep. It was all about doing, doing, doing. Nothing wrong with the items mentioned. I've mentioned them myself. But the focus was serving, and that's NOT what the main purpose is for a Christian.

 

So what is the main purpose? What does Jesus want from us? What should our New Year's Goal be? Three words...Just Love Jesus! Our purpose in life is not to DO the STUFF but to LOVE the LORD!

 

The message even said our energy comes from the reading, praying, etc. Not so. Our energy comes from loving Jesus. "The JOY of the Lord is our strength" Nehemiah 8:10. It's in His joy that we have the strength to live the Christian life and then it results in the "stuff".

 

Quick example. When I was a teen, I made the decision to be "more committed". I decided I would pray 5 minutes every day. I got my stopwatch, my prayer list and said "on your mark, get set, pray". I then prayed for everything under the sun. As I watched the seconds tick closer to the goal, I would slow down my prayer until I accomplished my 5 minutes.

 

What was I focusing on? My watch and not my conversation with the Lord. I'm not making a resolution. I'm just continuing on with my love for Jesus. But because I love Him, I'll probably be at church just about every time the doors are open because I want to be there.

 

Not gonna set a goal of reading the Bible through in a year, or even a set number of verses. But because I love Him, you probably won't find my Bible, (aka God's love letter) collecting dust on the shelf.

 

And prayer time? Well, can't really remember a day in 2011 not praying and because I love Him, I can't even imagine a day going by without talking with my Savior!

 

My challenge to you for 2012? JUST LOVE JESUS. And how do you do that? Do what the Bible says. We love Him because He first loved us. FOCUS on how much He loves you!

 

Oh, the message ended with the hymn, "My Jesus I Love Thee". Wow, the message should have been what the song was about. Make 2012 about loving the Lord!