This Year I Will …

 ~ … Make Just One Commitment ~

 

Introduction  ~  One of the reasons many New Year Resolutions fail is that they are just one resolve of many.  It becomes overwhelming to accomplish them all and in the end few, if any, of the resolutions are accomplished. 

 

Suggestion  ~  Resolve to do just one thing everyday in 2022.  If you succeed with this one thing it will resolve many other issues in life.  Here it is: Each morning as you arise from your bed take a few minutes (even one minute will do) to reflect upon the Cross of Calvary and what it means to you personally. 

 

Comment  ~  I have been trying to make this an absolute daily habit for some time now.  I don’t always succeed, but I’m improving.  This one simple thing does wonders in many ways as you live your daily life!

 

The Most Important Issue In Life  ~  Have you settled your eternal destiny?  Right this moment you are headed for either heaven or hell – there is no third alternative.  Unless you make a deliberate decision you are headed to an eternal punishment.  If you are ready to receive the forgiveness and loving acceptance that Christ offers then it is as simple as A-B-C:

“A” ~ Admit that you have sinned and need a strength beyond your own.

“B” ~ Believe in the power of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“C” ~ Choose to trust Christ as your Savior and to learn of Him, seek to follow Him, and in so doing possess “the peace that passes any human understanding.” 

For more specific help visit www.HeavenOrNot.net.

 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW blog.

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Resolution Power

~ Using The Will of Man To Do The Will of God ~

The Scriptures teach that God has given us many gifts with which to serve Him.  One of these is our will.

We often pray to God about a particular circumstance or forthcoming event, “Thy will be done,” and rightly so.  But when it comes to our own conduct, our manner of behavior, we do not usually pray like that because we understand God has made us free moral agents; we control our own behavior.  In a syndrome-seduced age when everything is blamed on compulsion, self-control is a forgotten idea.  But the fact remains: empowered by God’s grace, we can use our will as a rudder to guide our lives down a course honoring to Him.

How?  One way is through resolutions.  Not the insincere vapidities announced at the end of every year to tired choruses of “Auld Lang Syne,” but rather the intensely serious and carefully framed assertions of Christian purpose.

Biblically sound resolutions are the intentions of the renewed mind, those declarations of the heart which have the power to order our actions.  Such resolutions are like the coordinates on a map that we painstakingly pick, so that during our journey we can refer to them and verify that we are on target for our desired destination, which, for God’s child, is hearing his heavenly Father say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant...enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21).

When we set our will and resolve to honor Him—morally, professionally, whatever the endeavor—He keeps His promise of I Samuel 2:30, “Them that honor Me I will honor.” 

I am the New Year.  I am unused, unspotted, without blemish.  I stretch before you 365 days long.  I will present each day in its turn a new leaf in the book of your life for you to place your imprint upon it.

It remains for you to make of me what you will; if you write with firm, steady strokes, my pages will be joy to look upon when the next New Year comes.  If the pen falters, if uncertainty or doubt should mar the page, it will become a day to remember with pain.

I am the New Year.  Each hour of the 365 days I will give you sixty minutes that have never known the use of man.  White and pure I present them; it remains for you to fill each minute of them with sixty jeweled seconds of love, hope, endeavor, patience, and trust in God.

I am the New Year.  I am here but once—past, I can never be recalled.

Make me your best!

Reprinted from The Sword of the Lord

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .

7 Exhortations

~ Are You “Letting” the Spirit of God Do His Work In You? ~

Let The Peace of God Rule In Your Hearts (serenity)  ~  “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful” (Colossians 3:15).

Let The Word of Christ Dwell In You (strength)  ~  “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16).

Let His Mind Be In You (conformity)  ~  “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5-7).

Let Your Gentleness Be Evident (character)  ~  “Let your gentleness be known to all men.  The Lord is at hand” (Philippians 4:5).  

Let Your Lifestyle Be Attractive (conduct)  ~  “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.  For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5).  

Let Your Light Shine Before Others (testimony)  ~  Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).   

Let Your Life Be Ever Ready (watchfulness)  ~  Jesus said, “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately” (Luke 12:35-36).  “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed” (1 Peter 3:15-16).

summary: Let Your Life Display the Love of Christ ~  “But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14).  Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .

Continue On

~ Press On In 7 Critical Areas In 2016 ~

As we enter another year, it is my prayer that each of my believing readers will finish the race strongly!  I believe we are truly in the last days and waiting for the imminent return of Jesus Christ for His Church.  May we all continue on faithfully for Him—regardless of what it might cost us.

Continue On In the Love of Christ  ~  Jesus said, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:9-10). 

Continue On In The Word of Christ  ~  “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’” (John 8:31-32). 

Continue On In The Grace of God  ~  “Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God” (Acts 13:43). 

Continue On In The Faith  ~  “And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God’ (Acts 14:21-22). 

Continue On In The Things Learned  ~  “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.  But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.  But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:12-15).

Continue On In Your Ministry  ~  “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:  Preach the word!  Be ready in season and out of season.  Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.  But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:1-5). 

Continue On In Expecting His Return  ~  May we all be able to echo the Apostle Paul’s statement:  “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:6-8). 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .