It's the new year!! A time of starting fresh and resolutions and changes and...
Nah.
Instead of making up new stuff to do that I ultimately won't end up doing, I will look at simply doing a better job of what is already before me.
If you know anything about God's Word, then you probably know John 3:16. But one of the most challenging verses I've encountered in 14 years of walking with Jesus is a different 3:16, in Philippians. For some context, Paul is talking about maturing and growing in one's walk with God. Starting in verse 10, he says
So that's how I will enter this new year. How am I doing in the areas that I've already invested in: as a daughter of the King, a wife, as a mom, as a homeschooler, as a family member, as a church member, as a friend? I will start there. Then maybe some day I'll be ready for the bigger, the better, and the deeper. For now, I'm staying right where I'm at.
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Instead of making up new stuff to do that I ultimately won't end up doing, I will look at simply doing a better job of what is already before me.
If you know anything about God's Word, then you probably know John 3:16. But one of the most challenging verses I've encountered in 14 years of walking with Jesus is a different 3:16, in Philippians. For some context, Paul is talking about maturing and growing in one's walk with God. Starting in verse 10, he says
I want to know Christ - yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. (v 10-15)About 8 or 9 years ago, I ohhhhhhh so foolishly thought I had this Jesus life down and was ready for the bigger and better and deeper things of God. That is, until He stopped me dead in my tracks at verse 16:
Only let us live up to what we have already attained.I have no business going on to the bigger and better and deeper when I am missing the mark every single day with the plates I'm already spinning. Technically, I suppose one could make resolutions for exactly what I am suggesting. But in my brain and in my spirit, I need to think this Philippians 3:16 way: live up to what I already know I should be doing, then doing it well and with excellence to the honor of the Lord Jesus.
So that's how I will enter this new year. How am I doing in the areas that I've already invested in: as a daughter of the King, a wife, as a mom, as a homeschooler, as a family member, as a church member, as a friend? I will start there. Then maybe some day I'll be ready for the bigger, the better, and the deeper. For now, I'm staying right where I'm at.
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