New year provides opportunity for reflection
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Faith Fitness
Bro. Sam Kaufman
This time of the year always provides a good opportunity for reflection.
We can look back at the previous year and see what we’ve accomplished or didn’t accomplish.
Maybe there are some regrets in what we did or didn’t do. If that is the case, we can start with a new and clean slate for the upcoming year.
Now is the time to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, with a fresh new outlook. It will require commitment!
Regarding service to the Lord, we are not our own, but we are bought with a price. When we came to Christ, we relinquished our own rights and gave our heart to God. That’s why we need to be open to God’s leading in our lives.
We must first be able to hear God’s voice and instructions for us. The Bible tells us that we are to lay down our lives for the brethren. Our allegiance has to be to God and not to the things of this world.
“I beseech ye therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)
In the world, a Top 5 New Year’s resolution pertains to our physical bodies. A lot of people say they are going to eat better and start exercising. The ambition is to drop pounds and lose some weight.
As Christians, we also need to trim down some. Weights do come into play, as well. It is, however, a somewhat different scenario.
Hebrews reveals that we are running a race – or our walk with God. There are things that can weigh us down if we are not careful.
God also refers to it as a battle or a fight against our archenemy, the devil and this world.
“No man that warreth entangleth himself with affairs of this life; that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier,” II Timothy 2:4 tells us.
We’ve got to maintain our course that leads to heaven on a steady pace and straight way. Sometimes it is easy to veer off the roadway if we fall prey to Satan’s tactics and devices.
A good examination or check of where we’re at in this race is always good. We’ve got to be honest with ourselves.
Hebrews 12:1 states, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
Many times, the devil will attempt to place snares in our lives that are not outright sin. We know what sin is, and so we don’t touch it with a 10-foot pole. But that is when the devil’s subtle ways appear.
He’ll try to slip something into our lives – perhaps things we become addicted to – to trip us up. In and of themselves, these things are not considered sin.
But they become idols to us in that they prevent us from doing what we need to do in God’s service.
They take up too much of our time, efforts, energy, and finances!
Our cell phones and the internet are two of Satan’s devices that can get a hold of us if we are not careful.
Our focus needs to be on the Lord and not on this world.
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set you affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2)
