Surprise! It's another new year. You're older, wiser, and maybe a little bigger than you were at the start of the holiday season. Now it's time to think about all the things you would like to change about yourself this upcoming 365 days.
I could go with the basic "work out more and eat healthy" stuff, but I want to try and give some ideas about what you can do to change your outlook on life and how you interact with others. Of course, you don't have to take any of this seriously, because who am I to tell you how to live your life? But, if you're stuck on a "new year's resolution" like I am, perhaps these seven biblically inspired resolutions can give you a bit of inspiration.
1. Try choosing to listen to someone rather than trying to insert your opinion.
James 1:19-20 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
2. Save every one dollar bill you come across and once a month give the money to your church/a local charity.
2 Corinthians 9:7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
3. Drink water with every meal instead of soda, juice, or tea.
John 4:13-14 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.*
*this one might be a more metaphorical verse, but hey, you can't go wrong with getting a little healthier to help your body! And you should definitely get in on that eternal water, too. I guess this one is a two part resolution.
4. Tell someone that you care about that you love them at least one time a day.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever might believe in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.
5. Make a list of everything you know to be true because of who you are in Christ and read it any time you're feeling discouraged.
Romans 5:7-9 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Genesis 1:26(a)-27 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Ephesians 1:7-8 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight6. Make a list about everything you know to be true because of who someone else is in Christ and give to them.
1 John 4:10-12 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Romans 8:36-38 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Romans 3:23-25(a) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
Now, go out and make 2017 the best year ever!
God bless you!
