New Year Ahead

I don’t know about you, but entering a new year always brings a measure of seriousness. God gives me another year with heavy questions about how best to use it for him. It’s so easy to ‘lose time’ – what a terrible expression! – or to ‘waste time.’ Time (with health) are immensely precious commodities, so often not appreciated until we no longer have them. Talk about using time best for God is not some grim and over-pious wish. God wants joyful living in every dimension of life and relationships with Him, family, friends, other believers at work and play. Yes, joyful living.

Three words strike me as important for 2011: Fruit More Maturely. They sum up my desire at the beginning of this new year. More maturely speaks about developing deeper character so that in every aspect of life there is less immaturity in the ways I think and act. I ought to be more kind, gentle, understanding, patient with greater self-control than used to be the case, say ten years ago. After all the Christian life is about a building process for believers so that ‘all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ’ (Eph 4:13). Of course this is a hopeless cause unless I allow and expect to be helped by God to grow more mature. This is why the word Fruit is so vital. It keeps me depending on the Holy Spirit who is able to grow and deepen character (Gal. 5:22). Without belonging to God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit – 2011 will be just like 2010. With the triune God, greater maturity in joyful living is really possible. Serious stuff but joyful.

How are you going to express your life-goals in 2011?