New Year Resolution to be a serious Christian in 2012

You have made a New Year Resolution to be a serious Christian in 2012 and are now wondering how to get started. if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, then act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides.  Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ -- that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.  Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life--even though invisible to spectators--, is with Christ in God. He is your life.

So, if I am really serious about being spiritual, about being a Christian; if I am serious about being a mouth for God and serious about being His servant . . . then I must ACT LIKE IT! I must consciously live like that. It doesn't happen in a dream. . !

No! My son! It doesn't happen in a dream. It doesn't just happen. It doesn't just fall on a man. It takes the will of that man. It takes conscious effort. It takes a deep commitment to live that kind of life. If you want it, you must will it, just remember that ONLY I, THE LORD CAN make it happen! Living a holy and spiritual life takes a deliberate exercise of the individual's will even though that man must not think that it is purely by his own will.

It is not just your will, because your will is not strong enough, neither is it self sufficient in all the resources needed to live the Christian life and be My servant. Moreover, it cannot be by just the will of man, lest any man should boast. YET, YOUR WILL IS THE CHANNEL THROUGH WHICH ALL OF SUCH MY RESOURCES FOR LIVING THE SPIRITUAL LIFE ARE GOING TO PASS.

If I want to live victorious and provide the platform and the atmosphere to be my channel of revival, I must consciously live like it. I cannot just relax and give myself to whatever comes along and hope to turn out spiritual. In this evil and adulterous generation, what easily comes along will always be evil and adulterous. It will always be contrary to the will of God. It will always drag me down . . . to the earth, earthward, carnal and worldly!

Colossians 3:2 “Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ--that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.” - Message Translation 

I cannot just be going on, doing and getting involved in everything or giving myself to anything that comes along and hope that somehow, I will remain spiritual. No! That will constantly lead me to death, death of my spiritual life.

I cannot just listen to every talk and chatter of worldly colleagues and hope that somehow their discussion will lead to God and spiritual things. In this high tech sophisticated, self loving world, discussions hardly go that way!

I cannot just laze around the TV, watching movies or even CNN and hope that the desire to pray will come spontaneously! If they don't fill you with lust from watching loosely dressed women, they will most certainly fill you with fear from scenes of suicide bombings!  I cannot just eat and drink and be merry at every opportunity and think that spiritual power that comes from abstinence and fasting will attend my ministerial effort. Only they that seek Him, find Him!  If I leave my biblical knowledge and understanding of God to just what I hear from the pulpit on Sunday or the occasional message on Radio, I deceive myself if I think the Word of Christ will richly dwell in me in all wisdom.  I cannot just shuffle, lazily along, eyes to the ground and on things of the earth, simply getting into everything and anything that comes my way and hope to live the resurrection life of Jesus. No! It doesn't happen that way!

Oh Lord, pls help me!

If I want a Devotion, I must devote myself! . . . Consistency in life doesn't just happen.
If I want a Meditative heart, I must pause, withdraw and meditate! . . . Thoughts of God won't always barge in on my earthful thoughts!  If I want my mind filled with the things of God, then I must SET my heart, TUNE my thoughts and KEEP my mind STAYED on God and His desires!

I must look up.  I must lift up my eyes, my heart, my thoughts, my focus, my desires, my pre-occupation . . . from things around me, from the immediately visible and reachable . . . . and reach for the heights, for Heaven, for God and for His issues. And having attained it, I must keep my thoughts there!

Isaiah 26:3-4 “People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit. Depend on GOD and keep at it because in the LORD GOD you have a sure thing.” - Message Translation 

Lord! Pls set my mind on You. Keep my thoughts on You.  Keep me at it, relentless and unyielding to pressures around, till I am completely consumed in thoughts of You, Your program and Your purpose for my life!  Keep me keeping at it. Not quitting. Depending on the Lord! These instructions are the antidote to gradual backsliding into carnality and worldliness. No one just lies down and become spiritual. No one becomes spiritual by default. I must consciously pursue spirituality. I must strain to keep exercising my spirit. I must keep keeping at it.

Oh Father! Keep me at the things that will keep me spiritual! Keep me at diligent all-day Meditation. Keep me at voracious Word study. Keep me at pursuing consuming burdens of Prayer. Keep me at pursuing the spirit of Praise and Worship. Keep me at pursuing deeply convicting utterance in Preaching. Keep me at pursuing passion for raising up lives in Discipleship. Keep me at pursuing! Lord!

Adapted from article originally published by Brother Gbile Akanni in Livingseed.org.

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