A New Beginning

Happy New Beginning!

I know that the usual greeting is “Happy New Year” (as I posted a few days ago), but we all have a brand new year to start over, to make things different, to fix things that may have been broken in 2013: broken promises, broken relationships, broken finances, and anything else that may have been broken along the way.

A new year is great time to make a determination to let go of things of the past, and reach forward to things of the future, as Paul said in Philippians 3:13, “…..forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.”

As I pondered what to write in this blog, I thought about three areas where we can all make a change and be pleasing to the Lord and be a blessing to others in 2014. I call them the “Be mores” and they are:

(1)Be more obedient to what God has called us to do, (2) Be more forgiving of those who have hurt and misused us, and (3) Be more loving to those who are in our world, whether in our families, our neighborhoods, our churches, and our communities at large.

Be more obedient: Many of us (I know that I am guilty) have a lot more Bible knowledge in our heads than we practically try to live out and apply to our lives. The Lord tells us many times in His Word that we are to obey Him, and our obedience is an indication of our love for Him. May we all strive to live out what we already know to do, remembering these verses for encouragement, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15 and “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” I John 5:3

Be more forgiving: This is an area that, over the years, I have gotten better in, but I still have to be careful that resentment and bitterness are not allowed to get a foothold in my heart. When we reflect on the Cross, we come face to face with our own sin and how much it cost our precious Savior in order that we might be forgiven. So who are we not to forgive when others treat us badly? Sometimes it is not easy, but we must remember that we hinder our own intimate fellowship with God when we don’t forgive. Also, when we welcome the sin of unforgiveness , “The Lord will not hear” (Psalm 66:18) when we pray to Him. When it comes to forgiving, this verse is a wonderful reminder of what Jesus has done and why we must forgive, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

Be more loving: If we strive to do all things right, yet do not have love in our hearts, it means nothing as Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 13. The summation of all that we do involves loving the Lord with all our being, and loving others as ourselves, as our Savior said (Matthew 22:34-40). Loving this way is a choice, and by the power of the Holy Spirit we can do it! After all, love is part of that nine-fold fruit we are to bear in Galatians 5:22-23. Some people are not easy to love, and those we found difficult to love in 2013, may we vow to see them as Christ sees them, because truthfully all of us are difficult to love at times! What an encouraging verse this is: “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” I Peter 4:8

May our new beginning in 2014 draw us closer to the Lord by obeying, forgiving, and loving!