I've heard a lot of talk since the beginning of the new year about resolutions. You know eat healthier, lose weight, be more generous, keep my school grades up, read my Bible more ~ that kind of stuff.
Now ~ I found a bunch of definitions for resolution online ....
but this is the one I considered most fitting.
Resolution: the act of determining
So, I've been thinking about what this means to a Christian. What am I going to determine to do in this new year? What makes this year any different than last year or the one before that or 5 years ago or 10 years ago or 20 years ago .... okay, you get the point. We've been talking about Doing The Hard Things these last two years in Youth. What does that mean?
As I've been thinking about these things, I boiled it down to two commandments given by Jesus in Matthew 22:36-39:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Simple right?
I think we could all agree that isn't as easy as it sounds.
In order to love God with all we have,
we have to try to understand who He is.
Once we get a small glimpse of who God is, we have a choice to make.
Are we going to choose to love Him with
ALL our heart, soul and mind?
Choices are never easy ~ one of our "jobs" as Youth Leaders is to encourage you to make good choices. Well ~ choosing to love God with ALL your heart, soul and mind is more than a good choice .... it is the absolutely positively without a doubt 100% best choice you can make. Yeah, it won't be easy -- but we can all be here to encourage each other.
Give some thought to what you're going to allow God to do in your life in 2011!
I know that at the retreat we did a survey, and I failed at reading God's Word. But ever since then I have gotten in the habit of reading the Bible every day. I have learned a lot through doing so, and I hope God will increase my love for His Word even more this year.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like every year I make the same 'resolution'-- read my bible more. This year, however, I did not set any. Although I want to be reading my bible more, I think that is not my primarily focus I need to be working on. I think for me, I need to really focus on trusting God, letting Him direct my life, and letting him be my 'buddy' along the way.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds pretty... I can't even think of a word. For me, trusting God is pretty hard. I mean, I do trust Him, but then when it actually comes down to the hard times, my actions do not show that I trust him most times. I do not even rely on Him. At least that's how it used to be, I am determined to change that and make God not just my navigator, but my buddy too.
im not sure what to say..... <\3
ReplyDelete