Faith-based Resolutions: Make a Difference
This week we are completing our suggestions for this year’s Faith-based Resolutions. If you missed the six previous ideas, find them at here and here).
- Expand Your Mind –
It’s funny, isn’t it? We want to experience a rich and full life, to grow and learn, but we rarely take time to read. If I remember correctly, my dear friend Ruth Bell Graham once said that she always took three books with her when going on vacation: “a Christian book, a biography, and a novel.” I remember she explained the Christian book nurtured her faith, the biography inspired her, and the secular novel kept her in touch with the thinking of contemporary culture.
Another friend said recently, she always reads some kind of Christian devotional before going to bed, so she goes to sleep with positive thoughts on her mind. Excellent!
Why don’t we each decide to set aside a specific time every day to read something positive and encouraging? It is proven that reading positive material and thinking positive thoughts actually creates positive pathways that transform our brain. Reading matters. Let’s add a few minutes each day to open our mind to new ideas and expand our world.
- Touch Your World –
Do you realize that God placed you in this generation, at this moment in history, in the place where you live for a reason? There are no accidents with God and no waste in God’s economy. He wants you to touch your world for His glory and to expand His Kingdom on earth right here and now. Are you ready?
Ask God to give you eyes to see what is happening in your community and a love for others that inspires you to “reach out and touch someone.” Maybe it’s your home-bound neighbor who simply needs someone to listen to her. Maybe it’s a young single working Mom who would appreciate your Chicken Broccoli casserole for her family more than you can imagine. Maybe it’s the group at your church accepting clothes for the homeless or feeding individuals at the homeless shelter. Maybe it’s an immigrant family who not only needs directions to the nearest pharmacy but also your extra winter coat.
In this new year, let’s decide to look around us and actually see the people who pass through our lives every day. And let’s do something! Let’s make a difference for Jesus’ Name sake. And don’t forget to let them know you are His representative and ambassador.
Reen and I purchase meaningful gospel tracts and insert them with everything we give, giving them away no matter what we do. Reen even includes them in the bill payment envelop, knowing someone will open them. Let’s help with physical needs but even more importantly help those around us find the only hope this life offers, a relationship with Jesus Christ.
May 2024 be one we will never forget, one of joy and abundance in Christ Jesus!
