New Year's Resolutions

This is the season of New Year's resolutions. For many this means kicking a bad habit, beginning a healthier lifestyle, or reconnecting with family and friends. As followers of Jesus Christ, this is also a time for serious reflection on our relationship with God. Methodists have a long history of using New Year's as a time to renew our commitment to the Christian life and ministry. Daniel Benedict from the General Board of Discipleship explains the concept of covenant renewal:

At the heart of Christian devotion is a sense that we are not our own, but that through God's claim upon us in Christ through baptism, we are God's servants. From time to time, Christians need to make a solemn renewal of the covenant, lest we hold back from God what we once gave to God but over time have hoarded for ourselves. (www.gbod.org)

Every time my family makes commitments such as at New Years or Lent, my dad always jokes that he is going to give up eating cooked turnips, calamari, and oysters on a half-shell. These are all things that he hates to eat already and would readily give up. It makes me wonder, how often do we make easy commitments instead of taking the dangerous and sacrificial path of following in the footsteps of Jesus?

Let's seriously consider the following questions to help us make sure that even if all our other resolutions fail, we are committed to constantly growing in God's grace.

Let's pray that God will help us be as healthy as we can be as a church family so that we can successfully carry out the ministry we have been called to!

In Christ, Adam