This year I want to walk in purity. I want the guarding of my eyes and my heart from the lusts of this world to be my priority. As men, there are so many temptations surrounding us daily, beckoning us to sin, and yet I believe that in Christ we have all the strength we could ever need to stand strong. Our purity, not only affects our body but our families, our friends, our admirers, and most of all the Holy Spirit, who resides in our heart. We must become men of purity and rise above the jokes and stories in our workplaces, protect ourselves from those who believe men are programmed for infidelity, and fight against the lie that pornography doesn't damage our souls.
This year I want my life to be marked by love. As you read about Jesus in the Gospels, one thing I notice is how so many people are drawn to Him. I believe this is because Jesus lived a love that most people had never encountered before. His life was marked by compassion, healing, and truth. Whenever he convicted a heart, I believe he did it in love. Most people realized this and opened their hearts to this genuine Man of God. I want to live this kind of love. To not live in judgment, prejudice, and narrow perspectives but rather to open my heart to seeing each person as a child of God, worthy of love and compassion.
I have always struggled with being disciplined. I am a jack of all trades and master of none because I did not have the discipline to see the hard things through. Though lack of discipline has marked my past, I do not want it to mark my future. I truly believe that I can do all things through Christ and yet He requires me to trust Him and allow His strength to be utilized in me. I worked very hard in the last few months of 2012 to maintain a nightly bible study and pray journal. I was able to stay mostly consistent and saw the fruits from being disciplined in that area. I hope in this new year I can continue this trend and grow that much closer in my relationship with Christ.
Finally, I hope to live a life of integrity in all I do. This is very much tied to the other three traits I hope to improve this year. One of the definitions that I read on integrity referred to it as the opposite of hypocrisy. Ask just about any non-Christian in America why they aren't a Christian and you will usually hear something about hypocrisy. I want my life to be marked by a genuine walk with Christ. Whether someone likes me or not, I hope they would at least be able to say that I have a genuine walk in my Christianity. I am portraying Christ to the world and there was no hypocrisy in Jesus or His ministry.
As I walk in this new year, I hope to relay all The Lord is teaching me in these areas. May each one of you be blessed and uplifted in your own relationship with Christ this year. In this time of resolutions, be careful not to get caught up in the resolutions of this world (losing weight, saving money, working less, etc.). Not that these things are bad, merely that I hope you will put more focus on eternal applications than worldly ones. My hunch is that all your worldly goals will work themselves out in the process of growing closer in your walk with Jesus. May you all have a blessed and happy new year."!
Blessing,
Greg
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