A cartoon from three years ago reappeared recently with two characters in a brief conversation. The first asked, “What exactly is a New Year’s Resolution?” and the response, “It’s a To-Do List for the first week of January!” So, if you made any resolutions have they already expired?
It is claimed that one of the most “unkept” resolutions is gym membership and financial advisers frequently encourage readers to check regular payments from bank accounts to review those that are no longer enjoyed.
Some resolutions do not need a New Year to prompt us to make changes, which may be a challenge we face whenever we listen to Bible teaching. How many times have we been listening to, or reading, Bible messages and we have been challenged about our Christian life? Our immediate response may be a “pricked conscience” and/or a genuine desire to make one or more changes to our daily lives. But, all too often it may not be very long before other essential issues take over and that initial, genuine, desire is lost – at least until the next occasion.
In 2 Timothy 2 verse 7, the apostle Paul, writing to a younger man says, “Consider what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this”. A lovely elderly Christian once told me that the word “consider” means – get down to thinking about.
In the early days of this New Year, as we listen to preaching and comments on a variety of Bible passages, may God help us to “get down to thinking about” what we read and hear.
PRAYER. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Bible. May every opportunity we have this year to learn of its teaching be used to contemplate what that means for us, and as we learn, please help us to implement the changes You want for our good and Your glory. AMEN.