Are You Spiritually Ready For The New Year?

With this year almost over it is important to look ahead to next year, and in the best of our finite ability, try to plan for the future.  Unfortunately we cannot see the future, so many times our planning for the next year needs to be changed as new circumstances beyond our control occur.  Yet, despite this barrier, there is one plan you can have that depends more on you and not according to life's circumstances: growing spiritually in Jesus Christ.

In order to have a successful next year spiritually, you need to do the following things:

1. Recognize that you are a sinner and that you need to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
• Recognize that being good cannot forgive the sins that you have committed in the past or future (Romans 3:10-12; Romans 3:23; Titus 3:5)
• Recognize that only the work of Jesus Christ on the cross to pay for your sins by His blood is the only way you can receive forgiveness from God for your wickedness (Romans 5:6-10; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4;  Hebrews 9: 22; 1 John 1:7)
• Recognize that the only way you can receive forgiveness for your sin is to personally place your faith in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9)
2. Have a plan to grow next year in your relationship with Jesus Christ.  

• Do you have a plan for you to spend time with the Lord--for He is always ready to spend time with you (Revelation 3:20)?
• Do you have a plan to let the Lord communicates to you through the Word of God (Psalm 119:11; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)?
• Do you have a plan to communicate to the Lord through prayer (Mark 1:35)?
• Do you have a plan to spend time with God's people in church (Hebrews 10:24-25)?
3. Know that the more you spend time developing your relationship with Jesus Christ, the more you live a life that is Christ-like.
•  The more you spend time fellowshipping in Christ, the more your life will produce godly fruit (Matt. 7:17, 18).
• The more you spend time growing in Christ, the more your heart will demonstrate that you are truly a Christian (Romans 6:2, 6, 12-13).

I hope that this brief outline can be a blessing in helping you develop a plan to grow more Christ-like in the coming New Year.  I am attaching a link to the ESV website were there are multiple Bible reading plans offered for spending time through God's Word: http://about.esvbible.org/resources/reading/

Pastor Steve

Psalm 119:89