Resolutions

What is your Resolution for the New Year?
What about Resolutions?  This is the title of the suggested Right Now Media for this week.
In viewing we heard people making some of the same resolutions that we’ve made over the years……

• to take better care of myself, lose weight, exercise, quit smoking
• to stay on budget, take care of my family
• to be a better Christian

And then there were some of the same reasoning’s that we’ve said

• I’m so old I don’t make them anymore
• Where did they come from anyway, the idea to make a New Year’s Resolution?
• Seems pointless
• Can’t break them if you don’t make them

The purpose seems appropriate

• Centering one’s self again
• Sets a direction for improvement

For whatever reason

• They are forgotten after a couple of months
• Don’t have the will to finish them
• Not important enough to stick to it

And so Life Happens…………………
 
Resolutions in a sense are about setting goals, striving for, hoping to achieve something.
 
Are you looking for Happiness?
According to Dr. Henry Cloud in the RNM (Right Now Media) series and in his book on “The Law of Happiness” he says that “Happy People have faith, an active vibrant faith.  God made you to need Him in order to thrive.” Dr. Cloud went on to say “You are to walk through life with your God.  He is alive.  He is a person.  Don’t treat Him like a religion.”
 
Do you want to experience the Good Life?
Pete Briscoe in his RNM series “The Good Life”, The session titled “A Secret that can Change Your Life”, he shares that the secret to a better ‘good life’ is waiting for those who are ready to grow,  …...the follow through is extremely important”.  To go after the “Good Life” through your relationship with Jesus.
 
Possibly you want to Love Boldly?
Sunday December 29th Anna and Leah Krafft shared their stories of “A Journey of Faith in College”, their Market Place, where God has placed them, for a time, to love boldly with others.  We are all called to let the Love of Christ work through us, to be his instrument. And when we Love Boldly God also blesses the giver, us.
 
Tom Proebsting shared the joy he has of being ‘Alive Again’. God’s hand of blessing through physical healing of health.  To live in the Joy of the Lord and what He has done!
 
In John Piper’s RNM series of “When I Don’t Desire God” “A Fight for Joy”.  He shared that “The devil’s main business is to keep you from seeing the glory in the Gospel, the Gospel of the Glory of Christ.”
He based this on 2 Corinthians 4:4 “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”.
His series teaches us that we need to “fight to find your delight in Christ”, to say as he stated, “I saw glory in the Gospel with the eyes of my heart”.  He goes on to give 14 strategies for fighting for Joy.  The first and most important in learning how to fight this fight he says is to Eat Bible – get your nourishment every day!  John continues to tell us that the devil is real, he feeds off of faith so that you can’t have it.  And the weapon to fight the devil is the Word of God.
 
So in deciding to make a New Year’s Resolution or not is one thing.
To decide to make a change in your habits of life, setting goals is another.  Develop the habit to Eat Bible.
Some suggestions that John Piper made are to:

• Pick a time of day, set an alarm to get up earlier if necessary
• Pick a place, a favorite chair, a quiet spot, your spot
• Pick a plan, possibly a guide to reading through the Bible in a year, getting into the RNM series available; join a small group study; Use your eyes, ears, mind and heart to Eat Bible.

 
We want to encourage you and you encourage us and others as we study together, discuss highlights we’ve learned, coming together in spirit into the word, understanding, and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Happy New Year!  Let’s shine in His Love through 2020!

           Larry & Darlene Brewe