Award Winning GENESIS SCHOOL OF MUSIC

➡️I love it when the calendar flips to a new year, and I get to embrace the tradition of setting New Year’s resolutions. I don’t know about you guys, but that is totally me. I look at my schedule, my budget, my business, my health, my family.  A majority people make New Year’s resolutions, but they say only 1% actually keep them. According to USA Today, here’s the top 5 resolutions made this year:

5…Spend more time with family/friends 

4…Lose weight

3…Exercise more

2…Eat healthier

1…Save more money

Those are good and they’re probably on my lists every year. 

In MATTHEW 22, there’s a group of people listening to Jesus, and a lawyer in the crowd stands up and asks the question, “What is the most important thing that we ought to be doing?”.  Listen…when the most important person in the history of the world is asked the question what is the most important thing we ought to be doing – we’ve got to pay attention to what he says.  In Matthew 22:37, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind.  And love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus goes on to say that the whole Bible, every commandment, every possible resolution we can make, hangs on this verse.

So here’s three resolutions that we’ve got to make if we’re gonna have a successful year – Love God.  Love People.  Love Yourself.  In that order – love God, love people, love yourself. 

1…LOVE GOD.  And of course, most people would say, “I do love God. Of course, I love God”. But in I John 3:18, it says, “Don’t just say you love, but show it with your actions”. 

So how do we show God that we love him?  It’s like any relationship – I love with my time, my attention and my actions.  I spend time with God, I listen to him and I do what makes him happy. 

1…I spend time with God through worship and prayer – this has to be our top priority.  Matthew 6:33 says, “If we seek God first, everything else will fall into place”

2…Listen to him.  God still speaks!  God speaks through people; God speaks through pastors or maybe reads like this.  But the main way that God speaks today is through His Word.  Matthew 7:24, says “that the man who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock”.  It’s good to set healthy goals, or maybe financial goals, but when the storms of life come, and they will come, looking better and having more money is worthless. We have to build our lives on the Word of God…listening to God and doing what he says. 

3…Do things that make God happy.  Ask the question, “what makes God smile?”  As a dad, what makes me smile?  It’s simple – peace in the home, my kids getting along, obedience, being grateful, saying thank you – loving each other.  In the same way, that makes our Heavenly Father smile. 

Love God.  LOVE PEOPLE.  If we love God first, then loving people is our natural response.  It just happens.  As I love God by spending time with him, listening to him, obeying him, I can’t help but love people. And how do we love people?  We…

Spend time with them.

Listen to them. 

Do things that make them happy. 

Let’s decide today that one of our top resolutions is loving people.  Do you want to be happier this year?  Do you want more friends? Do you want to have more peace? Make a difference?  If so, live your life for others. Remember, the most important person in any relationship is always the other person.  Loving people is the right thing to do…every time. 

Love God. Love People. LOVE YOURSELF.  Set goals, be healthier, exercise, eat better, save money, take care of yourself.  Loving yourself is not a bad thing; it becomes bad when you put yourself before God and before others.  As Christians, we ought to be the healthiest, happiest, wealthiest – the most successful people on the planet.  We are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  Everyone is drawn to success, so let’s make a decision to do well this year…to be our best. 

In conclusion, here’s a few encouraging scriptures for the new year:

Isaiah 43:18-19 – “Do not remember the things from last year, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; right now it springs forth”

2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ (that’s me), he is a new creation. Last year has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you this year, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.

Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways this year acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Revelation 21:5 – And God who is seated on the throne says, “Behold – this year – I am making all things new.”

I love that!  That’s the Bible and the Bible is always right. 

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