By Miriam from Nigeria
There is always a buzz around each New Year. Many people set goals, make resolutions, and spend time planning how they want the year to go for them.
That is a very good thing to do. However, I personally think that there’s often an ingredient missing in our plans for the new year.
That missing ingredient is love.
Love should be the umbrella that guides and inspires our goals and resolutions for 2023. Why? Because Love is what makes us who we are as Christians—we are created by God and God is Love.
As Christians, all our goals, resolutions, and plans must align with God’s ways and plan for us. So how do we do that? The only way is to commit our goals, resolutions, and plans to Him. Psalm 37:5 is a great reminder of this, as I mentioned in my last blog post:
“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you” (Psalm 37:5).
Imagine if you not only committed your planning to Him, but involved God as you went about the process of setting and making goals or resolutions. I have found from my own experience that doing this makes the process of both goal planning and achievement go much more smoothly, even when there are challenges.
To me, this is what true Christianity is about—believing that Jesus is Lord, living consistently in obedience to the teachings of the Bible and allowing the love of Christ to be our guide through life. As Christians, we are taught to always live that way, and that should also be reflected in our plans for the new year. These goals and resolutions will hopefully impact our lives into not only this year, but many years beyond.
When we do this—we will automatically reflect to the world who God is. As 1 John 4:8 says:
“The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love.”
One of my favorite verses that shows how to Love is found is 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NKJV)
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.”
As you reflect on this New Year, I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to help and guide you to allow each verse to flow through your day-to-day living so that you and the people around you can experience and know God.
One of the best ways to live our faith as Christians is not to do love but become love.
