I’ve spent the last week taking down the trappings of
Christmas and focusing on starting a new year; but I’m not one who thinks about
New Year’s resolutions. While starting new and forgetting the past
are good principles that line up with God’s grace, I don’t think Jesus would
encourage us to only turn our attention to resolutions once a year.
That’s because resolutions focus on what we are going to do,
while God wants us to focus on what we are going to be. Too often Christians are told that how they
behave is what is most important – but this is not what God’s Word teaches
us. Yes, our actions matter; but our
actions are not ends in themselves. The
really important part of the Christian walk is who we are, not what we do.
God is most interested in our character development – in building integrity and Christlike
character into us. That’s because he
knows that how we behave is a reflection
of who we are deep inside: “For out of the overflow of the heart the
mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). A person who is truly like Christ on the
inside will behave like Christ on the outside.
It’s that simple. And it’s that
hard.
Our behavior will never be perfect this side of heaven,
because we have a flawed sin nature. But
Galatians 5:24-25 reminds us that
those who belong to Christ have crucified that sin nature and now have the
opportunity to live by the Spirit. We
have new Spirit-character that is
being developed on the inside, which
will result in the Spirit-fruit of
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control (Galatians 5:22-23);
and these will manifest themselves on the outside.
As we start a new year, let’s resolve to choose to be more
concerned with being than with doing. Being like Christ will always result in
acting like Christ. Choose to spend more
time with God in his Word and prayer so that he can affect who you are on the
inside. I guarantee this will have a
more lasting effect on what you do on the outside than any New Year’s
resolutions ever will.
“His
divine power has given us everything we
need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
2
Peter 1:3
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