A Challenge For The New Year That Will Change Your Life

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays as much as we did. For the last 7 weeks we have had family members coming and going and it has been somewhat chaotic, but a blessing nonetheless. It will be nice to have the house to ourselves again but it has truly been an honor hosting so many family members over the last several weeks. Tanja and Oakley are both doing great. Oakley is 5 weeks old today and is already growing so quickly. We feel so incredibly blessed. To celebrate New Years we watched a football game and went to bed at 11. I know I know, not too exciting, but we are still just trying to sleep when we can with Oakley not quite having developed a sleep pattern yet.

The following message is one that has been weighing on my heart over the course of the last week. Heavily. It has caused spiritual warfare around me. It’s one that I just had to force myself to sit down, write, and post. So this one is coming at you unedited, unabridged, unchanged. I feel something the spirit has weighed so heavily on me to share, is too important to keep inside any longer.

Over the course of the last week I began seeing New Year’s resolutions posted all over social media. I saw some post that they wanted to begin reading their bible more, and some post that they wanted to grow closer to God….. and I think these are great, but it got me thinking about what God would want my New Year’s Resolution to be. Over the course of the last 18 months, I have been constantly reminded of something that was completely new to me and as I continued to see different resolutions posted, I began thinking, “Do we have it all wrong?”

Most of what I’m going to dive into now has been an active thought process over the last couple of weeks, and is still forming itself completely in some ways, but the premise is this message delivered in Ephesians 2:8-9, “God saved you by grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so we can not boast about it.” This passage reminds us that we are saved only by grace and that works mean absolutely nothing. Salvation is not a reward for “growing closer to God” or “spending more time in the bible”. This doesn't mean these aren't great things, just that they don't equate to salvation.

I’m reminded of 2 Corinthians 5:17, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” I’m also reminded of what I consider to be a mic drop passage, 2 Peter 1:4, “ and because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

See when we understand the true transformation that happens when we truly acknowledge that we are sinners. When we truly begin to believe with our entire being that God sent his son Jesus to die upon that cross and rise again for the forgiveness of ALL of our sins, past, present, and future. When we commit our entire life to him and to act as a beacon of light for Christ. Then a transformation happens that I don’t think even the wisest pastor can truly fathom with our limited brain capacity. At this moment the entirety of ourselves is made new. We are no longer a liar, we are no longer an addict, we are no longer insufficient. At this moment of transformation, we become complete in Christ. We become more than enough. I think Colossians 1:22 spells it out pretty clearly, “Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”

So yes, I think reading your bible more, or actively growing closer to God are positive steps, and maybe they are even good resolutions. But I think a step that is much more important, and something so many of us, myself included, fail to remember constantly, is to identify, try to understand, and begin to attempt to wrap our heads around who we truly are in Christ. If we make our main focus continuing to identify who we are in Christ, everything else falls into place. You naturally spend more time in the word. You constantly grow closer to God because there is no other option. You yearn for opportunities to serve and to give back. A passion ignites within you to spread the good news of what Christ did for you.

There is no acknowledgement of who we truly are in Christ Jesus that does not 100% ignite a response. The vastness of who we truly are in Christ is truly unfathomable. I honestly don’t think the human mind can fully comprehend being “blameless” and “without a single fault.” I guarantee you that time spent acknowledging who we really are in Christ and his promises for us will have an incredible impact on your daily life and your relationship with God almost immediately.

So my challenge to you in the new year is this…. Begin to spend time every day affirming who you are in Christ. Back that up with the countless scriptures that inform us of who we are in him. As that acknowledgement grows, absolutely everything else falls into place. Understanding this alone provides a belt of truth, a breastplate of righteousness, shoes that pave a way of peace from the good news, and a shield of faith. This single understanding of who we truly are in Christ changes absolutely everything!

Here are just a few verses to begin exploring who we are in Christ. I encourage you to not only read the verse but the passages around it. Dig into the context. Research. This journey becomes incredibly rewarding! Happy New Year!

Romans 8:17 - John 8:36 - John 15:15 - 2 Corinthians 1:21 - Deuteronomy 14:2

Romans 5:1 - Psalm 13:12 - Romans 3:24 - Galatians 3:26 - 2 Corinthians 5:17

Phiippians 3:20