Dave’s Monday Blast – January 1, 2024

Well…here we are once again…launching into a new year. Of course we do not know what this next year holds for us but we certainly can be INTENTIONAL about our commitments. I don’t know about you…but I certainly attempt to begin each and every day with a new commitment to look more like my Lord and Savior; however, there is something in our culture that encourages us to Be Resolved toward some worthy goal.

Over the next couple weeks I want to share with you my resolution for 2024 and beyond. Candidly, at some simple level, this resolve is a re-resolve to those things that I know are part and parcel to an enduring and maturing faith.

1. Time (Joshua 1:8 & 9) Remember that if you don’t live for Jesus, you will live for something else. If you live for a career, and you don’t do well, it may punish you all of your life, and you will feel like a failure. If you live for your children and they don’t turn out right, you could be absolutely in torment because you feel you failed as a parent. Your career can’t die for your sins. Your parenting or lack there-of can’t guarantee your place for eternity. “Everybody has to live for something. Whatever that something is becomes the ‘Lord of your life’, whether you think of it that way or not. Jesus is the only Lord who, if you receive Him, will fulfill you completely, and if you fail Him, will forgive you eternally.” Pastor Tim Keller, The Reason for God. 

What WILL spending time with God this year provide?

a. Reconnects you with Him (James 4:8)
b. Restores your Hope (Isaiah 6:1)
c. Restores your Perspective (Psalm 34:4)
d. Restores your Joy (Nehemiah 8:10)
e. Releases your Anxieties (2 Chronicles 20:1 & 12)
f. Recharges you for Service (Isaiah 6:8) 

Next week we will consider our generosity and the following week our relationships. Stay tuned!