Not a resolution but a focus for 2012

I have never made a New Year’s resolution and don’t plan on starting now. However the beginning of a new year is always a time to reflect back and look forward. Where I work we do yearly performance evaluations which is a time to look back at what you did in the previous year and more importantly to look forward to the next year. I am a believer in goals so over the past few weeks I have been trying to decide on my own personal goals for 2012. I have come up with what is I guess a goal, definitely not a resolution. More realistically I would call it a focus for 2012. I have decided to be focused on enjoying Christ even more. Enjoying something sounds very easy and you may think what kind of focus is that? That doesn’t sound too tough.  Enjoying Christ even more is not going to be that easy.

To enjoy Christ more is going to require giving up, or at the very least cutting back on a lot of things. To really enjoy Christ, those things in your life that do not involve Him have to be made less and less and He has to be made more and more. To enjoy Christ even more I am going to have to serve Him even more. To serve someone does not sound like enjoyment. But when it’s Christ you’re serving there is no greater enjoyment. I may have to give up a TV show, or personal time to do something for the church, a neighbor, a friend, or perhaps a complete stranger. To enjoy Christ a person must determine what gifts He has given them and actually use them. I cannot think of a better way to enjoy one’s self than to determine what your spiritual gift is and use it.

I’m not saying that I need to spend 12 hours a day in a Bible study, 6 hours a day in prayer, 8 hours a day in service because that adds up to more than 24. What I am saying however is in everything that I do, no matter what it is do it as if I was working for the Lord. He needs to be at the center of everything I do. I don’t know about you but sometimes I like to put myself in the center of some of the things I do and if I’m honest with myself I’m not a good center. Christ needs to be at the center of everything we do.

Here are a couple verses to go with my focus for the year, enjoy them and consider enjoying Christ more this year too.

Ephesians 6

⁷ Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

1 Peter 4:10

¹⁰ God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.