Happy New Year


Happy New Year everyone! It’s hard to imagine that it’s already 2012. The days, weeks, months and years seem to be flying by faster than we can imagine.

This morning I was thinking that God didn’t have to create this world with the order that we experience. It could have been designed so that we wake up each morning and don’t know what to expect. Would it be a short day or a long one? Would it be cold or hot with no semblance of seasons? Would we be able to grow crops or would there even be a growing season?

Yet God didn’t leave us to wonder; He created the world so that it has order with seasons and moon cycles and even years. I think that God had a purpose in having a new year every 365 days. First it is a way for us to keep track of time, but it also gives us an occasion for new beginnings, a time for change and a time to start new habits or to eliminate old ones. It’s also a time to put away the past, to get rid of the negative things from the year that has ended.

I’m not big on making New Years Resolutions regarding health or diet, money or relationships, goals or ambitions but this year I do want to take a fresh look at my life. The Bible tells us that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ. In order to accomplish that purpose we have to know who Jesus is, not just know about Him. I know Jesus as my Savior, but oftentimes my life doesn’t look a lot like His. Why is that? Is it because I am okay with just being who I am right now? Is it because it is too much trouble to change? Is it because it might be painful to change? Or could it be that I don’t really know enough about the life of Jesus?

Oh, I know many facts about Jesus and I’ve read all of the stories about Him in the Bible, but do I really internalize them to see how He spoke, to see how He felt, to see how He reacted and responded in the situations and circumstances of His life? Do I casually read my Bible or do I read it so that I can truly know Him so that my life will be transformed? 

That’s going to be what I strive for this year and for the rest of my life—to become more like Jesus. Will you do the same?

Now if you haven’t eaten your blackeyed peas yet go eat them, but don’t count on them for luck, instead look to God for all of your blessings in 2012.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

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