Resolutions

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

Life is a journey. It is always good to periodically stop and reflect upon where we've come from, where we are today, and where we've yet to go.

Look Back

"I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done." (Psalm 143:5)

Evaluate - Where have you succeeded? Where have you fallen short?

"I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die." (Jeremiah 10:23)

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." (Psalm 139:23-24)

Look Forward

"Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil." (James 4:13-16)

ABCD's of Life Planning

• Ask God for wisdom
  "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do." (James 1:5-8)

• Believe that the Lord orders your steps
  "The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand." (Psalm 37:23-24)

• Commit your plans to the Lord
  "We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer. People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives. Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed." (Proverbs 16:1-3)

• Do not worry about tomorrow
  "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today." (Matthew 6:24-34)

New Year, New Hope, New Life

New Years Day (and every day) is often a time to revisit our callings, our purpose, how we've grown, where we've missed the mark, where we've fallen short, and to endeavor to try again. It is a time of newness, but also of renewal and revival.

Revive (from http://vocabulary-vocabulary.com/dictionary/revive.php)

Definition: 1. to bring back to life; 2. to give new life or energy to something; 3. to restore and renew

Synonyms: restore, renew, rejuvenate, revitalize, refresh, resurrect, reactivate

On New Year's Eve 1739, John Wesley, George Whitefield, and some of their friends held a "love feast" which became a watch night of prayer to see the New Year in. At about 3 a.m., Wesley wrote, "the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground." Revival always begins with a restoration of the sense of the closeness of the Holy One. (from http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/r/revival.htm)

From Charles Finney's Revival Lectures:

[A revival] presupposes that the Church is sunk down in a backslidden state, and a revival consists in the return of the Church from her backslidings, and in the conversion of sinners.

1. A revival always includes conviction of sin on the part of the Church. Backslidden professors [of the faith] cannot wake up and begin right away in the service of God, without deep searchings of heart. The fountains of sin need to be broken up. In a true revival, Christians are always brought under such conviction; they see their sins in such a light that often they find it impossible to maintain a hope of their acceptance with God. It does not always go that extent, but there are always, in a genuine revival, deep convictions of sin, and often cases of abandoning all hope.
2. Backslidden Christians will be brought to repentance. A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. Just as in the case of a converted sinner, the first step is a deep repentance, a breaking down of heart, a getting down into the dust before God, with deep humility, and a forsaking of sin.
3. Christians will have their faith renewed. While they are in a backslidden state they are blind to the state of sinners. Their hearts as hard as marble. The truths of the Bible appear as a dream. They admit it to be all true; their conscience and their judgment assent to it; but their faith does not see it standing out in bold relief, in all the burning realities of eternity. But when they enter into a revival, they no longer see “men as trees, walking,” but they see things in that strong light which will renew the love of God in their hearts. . . .
4. A revival breaks the power of the world and of sin over Christians. It brings them to such vantage-ground that they get a fresh impulse towards heaven; they have a new foretaste of heaven, and new desires after union with God; thus the charm of the world is broken, and the power of sin overcome.
5. When the churches are thus awakened and reformed, the reformation and salvation of sinners will follow. . . The worst of human beings are softened and reclaimed, and made to appear as lovely specimens of the beauty of holiness.

I don't know where the Lord will be taking us as a church body in 2012, but I know that His plans for us are "plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

My Pastoral Resolutions

• I resolve to be a man of constant joy, prayer, and thanksgiving (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

• I resolve to love my wife as Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25), and to manage my own family and household well (1 Timothy 3:4).

• I resolve to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).

• I resolve to do my best to present myself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15-16).

• I resolve to preach the word of God, to be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not, to patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage the people with good teaching (2 Timothy 4:2).

• I resolve to guard myself and God’s people. I will feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood—over which the Holy Spirit has appointed me as pastor (Acts 20:28).

• I resolve to care for the flock that God has entrusted to me; to watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what I will get out of it, but because I am eager to serve God; to not lord it over the people assigned to my care, but lead you by my own good example (1 Peter 5:2-3).

• I resolve to use the spiritual gifts that God has entrusted to me with to serve you (1 Peter 4:10), to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility value others above myself, not looking to my own interests but to the interest of others (Philippians 2:3-4), and to be the servant of all (Mark 9:35).

• I resolve to rejoice with those who rejoice, to mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15), and to share in your burdens (Galatians 6:2).

• I resolve to strive to forget the past and to look forward to what lies ahead, to press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us (Philippians 3:13-14).