"more than conquerors"
Romans 8:37
Actually, truth be told, I just don't really have a lot of will-power. Experience has taught me that I'm really not gonna be able to keep any resolution longer than about two weeks.... But I prefer to tell myself that it's because I am not constrained by the chains of this culture that tells me that January 1st is the day to become the "new" me. Well just forget it! No one's gonna tell me how to live my life! Who's with me! Yeah! It's just society trying to tell us what to do! Right?! It's just "the man" tryin' to keep us down! Heck no, we won't go! U-S-A!! U-S-A!!
Okay... it's out of my system....
But obviously, regardless of my feelings about New Year's resolutions, I'm not the same person I was ten years ago... or twenty.... or five.... I give the credit for that to God, but it was not without effort on my part. Sometimes, when God sees some way in which we need to be "pruned," He gives us the experience or the trial we need for Him to accomplish that. Other times, however, he shows us something that we need to work on, and it's up to us to make it happen. He'll help, if we ask, but if we want to stop smoking, or start riding our bicycle to work twice a week, we have to take the necessary steps.
So with that in mind, I try to be aware on a fairly constant basis ~ with highs and lows, of course ~ of things I need to be changing. More praying, less anxiety... more serving, less television... more dark chocolate, less green peppers... And then once I've identified something I want to work on, I have lots of choices as to when to begin working on it. New Year's Day is not the only day that's a good time to start a new routine or make a new effort. How about the first day of the week? How about the first day of a new season? How about a full moon?
Well, as I sat in church on Easter, it occurred to me what a wonderful new beginning that day represents. Easter Sunday has been called "The Day Death Died". Doesn't that seem like the perfect day to "put to death" any issue that's had a hold on you? Maybe you're finding yourself too often anxious about the world today, and the future it promises. Maybe you're more dependent on your paycheck for security, than you are on Him. Maybe you're not treating your body as the temple of Holy Spirit that it is. Well, there's no better day than to celebrate new life. Death has been conquered, and with it, any power the enemy had in our lives. What better way to celebrate Jesus' resurrection than to revitalize our love for Him, and our desire to grow closer to Him? Ask Him what in your life is distancing you from Him, and then put it to death.
~ "Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors
through Him who loved us." ~
Romans 8:37
Funnily enough, my sister and I feel the same way about resolutions. Go figure! But Kent & I have decided to try to look for more ways to serve others. To that end, we are participating in our church's "Love your neighbor day" and will be scraping paint and cutting up felled trees and washing windows or whatever is needed! It's nice to be nice to the nice!
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