New Year resolutions or goals? 31 December 2017

Every year many people across the globe participate New Year’s resolutions. The word “resolution” brings many connotations to mind, determination, steadfastness, tenacity and perseverance are just a few. Studies have shown that only 80% of people fulfil their New Year’s resolutions. I wonder if people truly understand this word.

The top ten New Year’s resolutions for this year were: Lose weight Getting organized Spend less and save more Enjoy life to the fullest Staying fit and healthy Learn something exciting Quit smoking Help others in their dreams Fall in love Spend more time with family

Why wait for a new year to start making resolutions? You can start with a new resolution any time you want to. It is often said that it takes 21 days to initiate a new habit. However, there is a big difference between resolutions and goals.

A goal is the object of a person’s ambition or effort: An aim or desired result. A goal gives you no option to back out nor do you want to back out of it. A goal is filled with passion and determination. A goal has more desire to accomplish something.

At St Stephens we recently, in fact, 3rd December, we had our own presentation of our vision for the New Year. Our goals for the New Year, were made known.

These are goals that will help us to plan more effectively for the year to come and are considered prayer fully. 1. To reach our families with the Gospel. 2. To trust God for more positive responses. 3. To source more volunteers to enable us to have more hands in the field. 4. Taking these points into consideration, we pray for growth at St Stephens.

Maybe one of your goals can be to pray more for sinners Maybe one of your goals can be to pray more for sinners. When we look at the world today we can see how it is literally falling apart. A lot of people are dying in their sin. We have a huge task ahead and we have the answer. Titus 2 vs 11 says, “For the grace of God (His unmerited favour and blessing) has come forward (appeared) for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind.”

What a wonderful idea it is to make New Year’s goals that will challenge you to reach more people with the Gospel. It is a truly unselfish act that will bring you closer to the heart of our Heavenly Father and as Jude 1 vs 23 says “save others, snatching them out of the fire….”

I wonder how many churches and organizations, or even Christians, will think of making a personal goal this year to reaching more people for the kingdom of God. I wonder how often we consider the kingdom of God.

I pray that in 2018 we will have a greater desire to reach the lost. Please keep all at St Stephens in your prayers, and for the people of South Africa to return to God. Let us stand together in prayer.

God, your word is my standard We’ve reached the end of 2017 and with all your heart you trust the Lord for a blessed and prosperous New Year – well it’s possible if you enter this New Year God’s way.

Make God’s word the standard of your life. Train yourself to just say what He says. Sooner than you can imagine, your life will rise to the level of His Word in your heart and on your lips. God is in His Word, you cannot separate them, and God is His Word. He makes His Word good. AS you do this you become the master of every circumstance because God is on your side.

You are aligning yourself on the side of His Word, and your enemy goes down in defeat. “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions”.

To transgress is to wilfully violate known boundaries of obedience To transgress is to wilfully violate known boundaries of obedience. The punishment then is not so much a direct action of God’s will, as an indirect result of having violated the blessings within the boundaries of His will, and thus having exposed ourselves to the judgements outside it.

Deliverance will come with genuine repentance Deliverance will come with genuine repentance. You must learn to continually speak the Word and not wait until calamity strikes! Storms come upon us all, so learn to speak the Word of God to the storm, instead of crying to God about the storm.

Would it not be a blessing if we could pass a “Resolution” for world peace in 2018

With all that is happening through out the world at this time – the atrocities being carried out by Isis – the position with North Korea and many other places in the world, we read Matthew 5 vs 44 Jesus says to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. We know the Spirit of Jesus in the prophets and in the Apostles also tells us that those who turn a blind eye to the killing of others are wrong, to not pray for swift action against them, is to not care about what Jesus said we should seek, what we should hunger and thirst for, for justice.

As Christians we ought to be, above all people, concerned with such justice. We don’t just have the common grace motivation, rooted in the image of God and the law written on the heart, to care about stopping murder and injustice. We also have the personal implication. It’s our household being wiped out in the Middle East, the very place where our church started

My last point is:- God’s righteous condemnation of sin is there – He does not, and cannot enable wickedness. And God’s mercy is also there in that He is the one who sends His Son as the propitiation for sin. He is both “just and the justifier of the One who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). The gospel doesn’t leave sin unpunished. Every sin is punished.

The repentant thief on the cross – a Middle Eastern terrorist by Rome’s standards – did not believe his salvation exempted him from justice. He confessed that his sentence was just, that he was receiving “the due reward for (his) deeds” (Luke 23:41) even as he cried out to Jesus for merciful entrance into his kingdom (Luke 23:42).

We ought, indeed, to pray for the gospel to go forward, and that there might be a new Saul of Tarsus transformed from murdering to gospel witness. At the same time we ought to pray, with the martyrs in heaven, for justice against those who perpetrate such wickedness.

Praying for the military defeat of our enemies – and that they might turn to Christ – aren’t contradictory prayers, because salvation doesn’t mean turning and eye away from justice. We can pray for gospel rootedness in the Middle East, and we can pray to light up their world at the same time. We are after all, the people of the cross.