We’re about to approach another New Year. It’s a new beginning, and it makes us feel the itch to wipe the slate clean and start over with new energy, commitment, and optimism. As a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to take it up several notches because we should aspire to live by God’s standard in a greater way. In light of this, the beginning of a new year is a good time to assess where we are in life so we can make some tweaks with the things that didn’t go so well, and we can expound upon the stuff we knocked out of the park. The wonderful thing about both, the situations we didn’t handle the best and the ones we did, is that they both can be improved by the wisdom in Psalm 100:2, which tells us to serve the Lord with gladness.
We have been given new life through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 2Corinthians 5:17(NKJV) tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” This doesn’t mean that our lives will be free of problems and heartaches. It means that our gratitude to God for the victory He gives us through Christ, no matter what we face, should be forever our focus. Psalm 100:4 tells us, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” Heavenly Father is a Great Big Wonderful God, and we ought to be excited and overwhelmingly thankful for all His many blessings.
One of the ways we demonstrate our gratitude to God is by being a blessing to others. As we think about what we might improve upon in the coming year, giving and sharing is always an area where most of us can do better. People mean the most to God, and sometimes we become so focused on ourselves that we forget we’re called by God to serve others. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 23:11-12(NLT), “The greatest among you must be a servant. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” We must humble ourselves before God according to the example of Jesus Christ. If anyone deserved to have people serving him and bowing at his feet, it was indeed Christ, but he did not want this. He was born in a manger, were the farm animals were fed. There was no fanfare, no celebrations, no crowns or royal jewels for him. To those he grew up around, he was known as the son of a carpenter. He humbled himself to this degree—a degree that you and I cannot imagine, and he did this in service to the entire human race because of his great love for us all.
Many of us get this humility thing a little twisted. For instance, I heard someone say recently that they hate the word ‘humility’. Their explanation being that when people tell you to be humble, they want you to wear a banner of ‘less than’ so you’ll make them comfortable with having less. Psalm 24:1 says that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it belongs to Him. Psalm 89:11(NLT) says, “The heavens are yours, and the earth is yours; everything in the world is yours—you created it all.” How foolish and arrogant we are to think we can claim to own anything. Everything belongs to God, and it is only through His grace that we enjoy the blessings we do. Humility is cultivated from this understanding. It is rooted in our gratitude that within a blink of an eye we could lose everything we have, but because of God’s grace, we have a life that we get to enjoy daily. Heavenly Father is the glue that holds everything together, and we must never forget it.
God tells us in 1Peter 2:9(NKJV), “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” We are a royal priesthood, but a Godly royalty cannot be defined by the standards of this world. People don’t get to define who we are as God’s sons and daughters. He has done this through Jesus Christ. God has told us who we are, why we are here, and what we are supposed to be doing with our lives. As family members of His Royal Kingdom, we are to be followers of Christ, and we are to give, share, and be of service to our fellow human beings.
Humility sometimes makes us uncomfortable because we don’t like submitting to authority or to anyone else. This is the attitude that started all Adam’s and Eve’s problems. They no longer wanted to submit to the sovereign authority of God, and this was a mistake so huge that it cannot be quantified; but Jesus Christ restored what Adam and Eve lost. Now, we live completely and totally free because of Christ. We are not defined by what others think of us. They have no power over us unless we give it. Again, we are defined by God, and as His children, we must submit ourselves to Him in service to others. It is a privilege to step outside our comfort zones to be a blessing, and if we want to make the best of the New Year, this is the absolute guaranteed way to accomplish it. Stretch yourself in ways you haven’t before. Pray that the Lord will open your eyes so that you never miss another opportunity to be in service to His Kingdom by blessing others. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“How to Make This New Year A Good One”, written for victoryinjesuschrist.life© 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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