The Best New Year's Resolution

Nothing seems to amaze me more each year, then that moment it hits me; Christmas is over, and it is about to be a new year. This is a time of reflection. A time to look back and to remember. For me, it’s been a good year. God has continued to bless me with many wonderful things. I finally lost the weight I’ve been battling to lose for at least two years. I got a few things fixed around the house. I went fishing and I went camping. I had some great family time. But as I look back, as a Christian, I must ask myself this; Did I grow to be more like Jesus this year? Or am I pretty much the same guy I was?

The new year is the time that we reflect back, so that we can maybe plan for the next year. We may make resolutions. We may make some plans. We may set some goals. As a Christian, I can come up with a great many ideas as to which direction I should go and in what ways I need to grow. If we’re all honest, we know that we all need to grow.

So, where do we start? I was just reading the second to last lesson in a book that is a forty-day study on how to be a better man. The topic is love. As I read the little study it hit me. Love is one thing we can all get better at. It ought to be the priority in every Christian’s life. Let’s look at what God has to say about love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

If I do not have love, I am nothing. Without it I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 16:14
Let all that you do be done in love.

Everything we do, must be done in love. Everything. All that we do, if we are Christians, must be done in love. Everything. No ifs, no ands, no buts. Everything should be done in love.

What does that mean? What is love? I cannot do something if I do not know what it is and how I am to do it. Take a look.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Verse 8 goes on to say that love never ends. Ever.

John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Christians are to love one another. That’s how the lost world will know we are Christ’s. that is our greatest witness.

Luke 10:27
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Christians are to love God.

Christians are to love their neighbors. And love them as much as you love yourself.

Matthew 5:44
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Christians are to love their enemies.

That doesn’t leave anyone left who we are not to love. Christians are to love everyone.

I don’t know about you, but I am not too good at this. So, if God says that without this love, I am nothing, then it sounds like I have found the place to start as I face a new year. Why not make love a priority in 2019? Why not make it first on this list of resolutions?

We all need to work on this. The Bible commands us to help each other in this lofty endeavor.

Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Love will change the world. It changes everything. It will change us.

I close with some of God’s truth on love.

Proverbs 10:12
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

1 Peter 4:8
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Let all that you do be done in love.