Welcome back to work all you vacationers. It is the dawn of a brand new year. I hope you had time over the holidays to review the triumphs and tragedies – accomplishments and failures that you lived through last year and set some goals for the coming year.
I always love this time of year because it seems so fresh. It’s a time that I can focus on the corrections that I need to make in my life in order to improve every aspect of it and revel in my dreams that next year at this time I will not be the same person and will have dramatically improved.
I’m launching an all-out effort to improve the content of The Jesus Alliance website and have subdivided it into what I believe Jesus would have us all do with our lives based upon my study of His life. His life consisted of:
- Prayer
- Witnessing to others
- Discipleship
- Performing good works (compassion ministry)
- Nation changing
The life of Jesus serves as a model for us all. My hope is that you will join me in following His example this year in order to improve your lives.
So I intend to spend time praying for this country and world on a daily basis. I’ve selected the time of 7 P.M. to say my nations prayer and I hope you will join me at that time. It is important to note that this will not detract from my existing prayer life. The Bible encourages us to pray without ceasing and I spend a great deal of time praying for all sorts of things, but this is a specific time that I’ve set aside to explicitly pray for our country and world in the spirit of 2 Chronicles 7:14. I’m praying that we will humble ourselves and turn from our sins of wickedness, racism, bloody violence, hate, and turn to the Bible to guide us on issues of marriage and the sanctity of life.
Likewise I intend to be more systematic in witnessing to others. I’ve set what I consider to be a very modest goal of witnessing to at least one person per week. This may seem like a paltry goal as I most surely will be afforded more opportunities than that, but I want to ensure that each week no matter what happens that I will encourage at least one person to enjoy the peace and joy that can only come from God. If I achieve my goal I will have witnessed to 52 precious souls for Christ.
I’ve long viewed Words for the Day as a medium of discipleship, but have not always lived up to its serving that purpose as I’ve been subject to the occasional rant. I’m going to work on that, but I’m going to add something personal in the area of discipleship this year. I’ve never felt that I had the time to disciple anyone on a regular basis, but I’m going to MAKE time this year. I’ve set a goal to meet with someone once a week for a minimum of one hour to disciple them one on one.
Regarding good works, again I try to help others every single day of my life. Trying and doing are two different things. Goals force us to either succeed or fail. We fail when we do not achieve them and succeed when we do. That is why it’s imperative to keep score and make sure that they are met. I set a goal of performing a minimum of one act of compassion per week which will be recorded in my journal. It might involve paying someone’s electric bill, or going to see a child with cancer in a hospital, or a prisoner in a jail cell, counseling someone’s wayward son or daughter, or whatever, but I systematically want to do something good for others without expecting or wanting anything in return.
I also desire to do something to change our nation and the nations of the world. Trying to emulate Jesus every day of my life is a nice start, but encouraging others to stand up for Jesus and live the kind of life that He did is another step and will involve my work with the Jesus Alliance and helping to unite the church to accomplish mighty things in His name. You will hear more about this in the coming year.
So I start off my year with lofty, but achievable ambition. It almost goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway that I cannot be much of a good influence on anyone if as a Christian I’m as sinful as the rest of the world. It will merely make me appear as a hypocrite to the lost. Mahatma Gandhi purportedly said: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” I’d like to change the opinions of those who subscribe to that belief even if it has to happen one person at a time.
Imagine if just the readers of Words for the Day all did what has been outlined above. It has been said that the average person meets ten thousand people in their lifetime. Just imagine the impact that we could have on the world if we emulated Jesus in all that we did; we’d impact our sphere of influence, those folks would impact their sphere, and so forth. The exponential component of this can change the world and usher in a great revival and awakening as never before seen.
While no one can be perfect aside from Christ in this fallen world, we can make others want to experience what we as Christians have. Start today – stand up for Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 60:1
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
January 5, 2015 – Click here to listen