How are your New Year’s resolutions coming along? The month of January has passed, and February is moving along quickly. Are you able to keep up with the resolutions that you have set for yourself at the start of 2024?
For many of us, at some point in our lives, we have tried setting up new goals and resolutions to start a new year. For others, they have done away with it either because of the lack of motivation, or it just doesn’t seem to be sustainable throughout the year.
Despite my past challenges to stick to my New Year’s resolution, I have welcomed 2024 with one inspired by Hebrews 11, well known by Christians as the Faith chapter. In this chapter, God’s Word has defined faith as the
“…confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
and here God has also commended His children for their Faith.
This inspired me to list 3 things in 2024 to work on:
Faith
What a priceless honour it is for the saints to be commended by the Lord for their faith. Hebrews 11 is a hallmark of “Faith Heroes” wherein their faith has led them to obey God in all circumstances. It is only by faith that we are able to respond to God’s Great Commission. We will be brought to foreign lands, and be met by both challenges and blessings, and yet only by faith will we be able to persevere and obey.
2. Obedience
Obedience is a by-product of faith in the Lord. God’s Great Commission is a call to obey, and a call to action. Going to the mission field or serving in other ways to help missionaries require faith and trust in the Lord as He fulfils His will through you.
3. Eternal Perspective
“13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.
15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return.
16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
Having an eternal perspective is essential for Christians to live a life of obedience, which in turn pleases and glorifies God. Developing an eternal perspective of our situations leads us to see that God’s plan extends beyond our life here on earth. This will help align our actions to God’s call for obedience despite the cost.
Whether you are already on the mission field, or praying to go, having an eternal perspective helps motivate and gives encouragement through tough and dry times. Going through suffering and persecution? It is only temporary. There are hurdles along the way? God will make a way for His children for His purposes. Not seeing any converts from the field? It is God’s harvest which will be reaped in His time, not ours.
Faith, Obedience, and Eternal Perspective - These are the things I prayerfully long to work on, in my response to God’s call to missions. It is only by the strength of the Lord and the leading of the Holy Spirit this would be possible to accomplish.
How about you? What is your New Year’s Resolution?
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