LifeLink  Devotions

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Through my study of the armor of God in Ephesians 6, it has helped me to organize the equipment into three categories:

1. The armor of Survival.
2. The armor of Rescue.
3. The armor of Nurture.

Let’s look at the armor of survival today. There are three pieces of armor that specifically protect us from the attack of Satan – the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the shield of faith.

• Truth needs to be the foundation of all our beliefs;
• the righteousness of Christ protects our hearts so that the life-giving blood of Jesus can flow continuously through our whole body;
• and our faith in the Presence, power, and promises of God protects us from the attacks of Satan against our personal worth and purpose.

In other words, with these three pieces of armor in place we are able to survive anything this sinful world throws at us, and rejoice in Christ while doing it.

Please take the time to read the following passage of Scripture. It’s one of my favorite because of the hope and joy that it gives.

1 Peter 1:3 – 9  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

We can have hope because the trials will most assuredly prove the genuineness of our faith, resulting in praise, honor, and glory to Jesus. The joy is experienced even during the trials because we are assured of the outcome. Every trial and test makes us stronger to stand against the storms yet to come.

Li Cha Mi, a Chinese preacher, was nearly killed in 1872 by robbers during the violence against foreigners. At a subsequent conference, he said: “You have all heard of my sufferings during the past few months. I wish to say that these sufferings were very slight. It was easy to endure pain when I could feel that I bore it for Christ. It is wonderful—I cannot explain it. When attacked by the robbers and beaten almost to death, I felt no pain. Their blows did not seem to hurt me at all. Everything was bright and glorious. Heaven seemed to open, and I thought I saw Jesus waiting to receive me. It was beautiful. I have no words to describe it. Since that time I seem to be a new man. I now know what it is to ‘love not the world.’ My affections are set on things above. Persecutions trouble me not. I forget all my sorrows when I think of Jesus. I call nothing on earth my own. I find that times of trial are best for me. When all is quiet and prosperous, I grow careless and yield to temptation, but when persecutions come, then I fly to Christ. The fiercer the trial, the better it is for my soul.”

When our perspective is correctly focused on the hope of glory, the joy of the Lord is our strength and we will not only survive trials, but they will make us stronger. Rejoice in the Lord – you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

I apologize to all of you who are not football fans, but the football analogy will be used again today. Yesterday we talked about foolish it is to think that the equipment makes the man. It is equally foolish to believe that the man doesn’t need the equipment.

Imagine this scenario – two teams take to the field for the opening kick-off. In a prideful attempt to prove their strength and skill, the team set to receive the kick-off is wearing no football equipment. Instead, showing off their muscles they are wearing spandex shorts, no shirts, and no helmets. They take their positions, all the while pumping up their chests and flexing their biceps. The opposing team is not impressed, and when the kicker boots the ball to the goal line they rush to engage their foolish opponents. Helmets and shoulder pads smash into unprotected muscle and bodies are strewn across the field. Some of the players are able to get up and prepare for the first offensive play, but they are already in pain. By the time a few more plays have been run, it is obvious that this is going to be a massacre that will probably end in forfeit, as the unprotected players will not be able to continue.

That is the spiritual scenario when we do not put on the full armor of God. We are vulnerable to attack and  unprepared to take any kind of stand against the forces of evil if we do not wear our spiritual pads and helmet. The enemy is not willing to weaken himself simply because we are weak. The opponent does not call time out to give us time to go back to the locker room and get prepared. The war is on, and the opening kick-off has already taken place. Put on your armor.

Ephesians 6:10-11,13  “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil…Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”

Notice three important truths from verse 11:

1. It is our responsibility to put on the armor. In His grace God has given us the equipment, but we must choose to wear it. Everything we need to be protected in the war is in our locker, but we must dress ourselves.
2. The equipment is provided to make us able to stand. When we are wearing the armor we CAN stand. Don’t go into the war with doubt. We do not need to learn to stand, nor are we just trying to stand stronger; we CAN stand.
3. The stand we take is a personal stand – so that you can take your stand. Each of us has a different position. Take your stand where God has placed you. Don’t try to play a different position. You weren’t trained for that. Take your stand in your own place and the whole team benefits.

One more thing – notice the guaranteed outcome. After we have taken our stand, and done everything God has asked us to do, we will still be standing! What a great team we are on. We win and everyone on the team is still standing – if they wore their armor. Is yours on right now? 

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Monday, January 10, 2022 

It’s time for NFL football playoffs, all leading up to the Super Bowl. Teams have prepared all year for these games, ready to put on all of their equipment and take a stand against an opponent that is seeking to knock them down and run over them. But there is something interesting I have noticed about all of the protective equipment that they wear: with the exception of some specialized pads to protect specific injuries, they all wear the same things –  helmets, shoulder pads, hip pads, and thigh pads. Yet in any given game, with all of the same equipment, one team beats the other. It must not be the equipment that wins games.

Inside all that equipment is a person, and it is the strength, skill and preparation of the player that makes the difference in the game. The equipment is to protect him, not equip him. Having the equipment on makes the player less vulnerable to injury, so the fear factor is diminished, giving the player the opportunity to push himself to his physical limits. But all of the energy and execution are the responsibility of the player and not the equipment.

As Christians we are also in a battle against an opponent, but this is no game. It is a war. The opponent will not extend a hand and help us up after knocking us down. They are coached to maim and destroy. They will not meet us at the 50-yard line to shake hands and kneel in prayer when it is over. They are an intimidating team. But before we run and hide and forfeit out of fear, let’s remember that we have some equipment to protect us.

Ephesians 6:10-11 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”

Now, let’s hear a motivational speech from our Coach. 

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. You are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” (From 1 John, John’s Gospel, and Luke)

We have two huge advantages over the opponent: Our Coach has already beaten their coach, and our Coach has the ability to actually live inside our equipment with us. When the opponent puts on their equipment they simply take orders from their coach. But when we put on God’s armor, God gets in it with us, and since he has already beaten the enemy once, we are guaranteed of victory again. 

The point of all of this is to get our focus on the right thing – our strength is not in the armor, but in the power of God abiding in us. Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. The armor protects us from injury, but it is Jesus Christ who equips us from within to push ourselves to our physical and spiritual limits. It is His power in us that wins the game. Our preparation for battle starts before we put any armor on – it starts in our hearts where Jesus Christ the Coach comes to live and reign. Once we are strong in Him, then we can put on the armor and fight the war.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Friday, January 7, 2022

In the classic 1980 golf movie Caddyshack, one of the characters is a Bishop who is really not very good at the game. But on one particular day he has the game of his life. It is raining as he starts, and every shot he hits is the best shot of his life. The storm gets worse as he continues to make shot after shot. Soon the rain is falling in torrents, the wind is blowing in gales, and the lightning is striking all around him, but he keeps playing, seemingly oblivious to the danger and discomfort of the weather. Finally, on the last hole, with water standing an inch deep on the putting green, he sinks a putt for a new course record. Raising his arms in triumph with his putter still in his hand, he is struck by a bolt of lightning and killed. 

Apart from the stupidity of his choice to keep playing in such a storm, this scene depicts perseverance. No matter what the external obstacle, this golfer was focused on completing his purpose to have the greatest round of golf in his soon-to-be-over life. The joy he was experiencing from accomplishing his purpose overcame any obstacle or suffering. 

James 1:2 – 4  “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

In Thayer’s Greek Dictionary, perseverance is defined as the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings. Perseverance has several synonyms used in the Bible – patience, steadfastness, and endurance are the three main ones. They all express the same truth – stick with it until it’s done. 

Notice in Thayer’s definition the following key points:

1. We have a deliberate purpose. God has prepared for us a divine purpose, and we are privileged to choose to accept it and deliberately obey it.
2. Once we have made the commitment to fulfill our purpose, we are to be loyal to everything that makes the accomplishment of the purpose possible – specifically faith and piety: faith being what we believe and piety being how we live what we believe.
3. Following our deliberate choice to accomplish God’s purpose and our loyalty to faith and piety, we are able to persevere no matter what the trial or suffering.

Now compare those three aspects of perseverance to this passage of Scripture. 

Hebrews 12:1 – 3  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

A deliberate purpose is defined as a race. A loyalty to faith and piety is defined as fixing our eyes on Jesus. Perseverance is defined as running without growing weary or losing heart. That’s what maturity looks like in a follower of Jesus. And when we’ve finished the last hole and accomplished our objective, raise your arms in triumph because Jesus will take you home and say, “Well done!“

Pastor John

https://anchor.fm/pastor-john-van-gorkom/episodes/SERVE-OTHERS-e1cqeuqLifeLink Devotions

Thursday, January 6, 2022

So far this week we have been digging a little deeper into five marks of a spiritually mature person. On Monday we discovered the truth of knowing Jesus intimately; on Tuesday we talked about sacrificing the immediate for the eternal; and yesterday we grew in our decision-making by considering moral discernment. Today we find the teaching of Scripture in Hebrews that defines maturity as loving service to other people.

Hebrews 6:1, 10  “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity…God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.

Coming up on Monday night the college football national championship game will be held. I enjoy watching college football. I remember one specific game championship game sixteen years ago. We had church that night, so after getting home I sat down to watch what was left of the game. There were 5 minutes left in the second quarter, and Texas, the team for which I was cheering, had the ball and scored a quick touchdown to take the lead. At that moment the phone rang. It was a young man that I had been assisting with his adjustment to society after getting out of jail. He had fallen and sprained his ankle and was on his way to the hospital emergency room. He asked me if I would be able to pick him up later and take him home. I agreed.

Little did I know that he would call back at 10:15 PM to have me come and pick him up. Those of you that know me well know that I am usually in bed by that time, but the game had kept me up. I jumped in the car, hoping to get this all done and return home to see the end of the game. When I arrived at the hospital they were not yet ready to release him, so I watched the game with him in his room. As we were transferring him into the wheel chair to go to my car USC scored a touchdown and went ahead by the score of 38-26 with 6 minutes to play. “Well, it’s over now!“ I said as we walked out of the hospital, forcing myself to feel better about missing the end of the game.

After a 40 minute wait at the pharmacy for his pain medication, I finally returned home at 11:45 PM just in time to see the final moments of the post game show and heard the news that Texas had come back and scored 15 points in the final four minutes and won the game. I couldn’t believe it. I missed it. The greatest college football game ever and I didn’t get to see the best part of it. 

Now for many of us, the temptation might be to think, “If it weren’t for other people’s problems my life would be so simple.” That is NOT what I thought! I was sad that I missed the game, but my heart was blessed to know that I was able to help someone who had nowhere else to turn. God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 

Spiritually mature people sacrifice the immediate for the eternal and serve others with the love of God. Try it today!

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

Another of the marks of spiritual maturity found in the New Testament is that we are able to distinguish good from evil. There is much more to this than just knowing right from wrong. A two-year-old child is able to understand yes and no, but in their heart they are not yet able to discern good from evil. The child responds to benefits and consequences, but does not have the ability to comprehend the nature of the action that brings the reward or punishment. It is in the understanding of the nature of good and evil that maturity occurs.

Hebrews 5:14  “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” 

The author of Hebrews says that this kind of maturity and understanding can only come through constant practice. The mature believer in Christ will evaluate the nature of every activity before participating. Never will a mature Christian simply respond on the basis of benefit or consequence, but will always look deeper at the nature of every choice to determine its intrinsic good or evil.

Look carefully at two key words for us to understand: one is trained and the other is constant practice. The word trained is an athletic term used to describe the intense physical preparations an athlete makes for an event. It literally means to exercise naked. So intense was the exercise that the body heated to the point of removing all clothing. The second word translated constant practice is the noun form of the verb used to describe marriage when we say to have and to hold. It means that we value something so dearly that we are not only glad to have it but we will cherish it and use it to its fullest extent.

Let me illustrate. Many of you were tempted about 2/3’s of the way through the last paragraph to quit reading because it was either boring or too deep or didn’t tell a cute story that was easy to read. Yet every one of you has been given the power of the Holy Spirit to know and understand the deeper things of God. You have been given an incredible gift of spiritual insight but maybe you have not chosen to train yourself through constant practice and exercise of the mind to use the gift to its fullest extent.

The same principle applies to our everyday lifestyle choices – we look only at the benefit or consequence of the choice and respond on that basis alone, rather than training ourselves through the constant practice of spiritual discernment to see the moral nature of the choice or activity.

When that two-year-old child begins to reach the age of understanding, we as mature parents move them from the reward and consequence stage of training to the stage of asking them to know why they made the choice they did. We begin to train the child to make moral decisions, not self-centered decisions. We want our children to know the moral difference between good and evil rather than simply choosing based on personal gratification.

That is what mature people do, and that is what mature Christians do. Is it easy? If it were then we wouldn’t be told to exercise naked. It’s hard work to move from the routine of going along with the flow to swimming upstream against the current of popular opinion. So strip down to the bare essence of who you are and train yourself to identify anything that will harm you. Set your mind firmly on the goal of righteousness in Christ, and start exercising your right and privilege to know the moral nature of all things. Constant practice will perfect the skill of distinguishing good from evil.

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions 

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Yesterday I had to stop at the gas station and fill my car’s tank. If I had not done that I would have run out of gas. I wanted to avoid that scenario because it could lead to a period of insecurity and depression. Here’s how: I would have had to call someone on the phone and ask for help, which puts me at risk of appearing like a fool for not planning better. This inconvenience would cause stress to me and to the person helping me, and could possibly stress our relationship. Valuable time has been spent correcting an avoidable situation and there is the possibility that I will have to listen to a speech by someone about how to manage my life better, which in turn will make me feel inadequate and devalued as a person. That will feed my insecurities and cause me to feel depressed about who I am and to question the true value of my life. That would have caused me to go to a sporting goods store and look for something to purchase, because if I am capable of buying a new item to enhance my life then I must be ok as a person. To avoid all of that, I filled my car’s gas tank.

Now that’s a little over-stated, but there is a truth I want to draw out of it – every one of us has an emotional filling station we use to make us feel good about who we are and to avoid the devaluation of our lives. When our emotional gas tanks start to get empty we head for the activity that has always brought us comfort in the past so we can feel good about ourselves again. One of mine is shopping. When I get down on myself I buy things. 

What do you use as a filling station for your self-worth? It could be that you escape into books or movies because fantasy is far better than reality. Maybe it’s drugs or alcohol to relieve pain. It might be sex so you can prove your manhood or womanhood. Maybe it’s a hobby you use to gain a sense of accomplishment. It could be gossip or criticism to build yourself up at the expense of others.  Maybe you dive deeper into work to prove your worth through performance. Whatever it is, it needs to be addressed. It is immature to use the world and its values as a basis for determining our value. It is childish to put all of our energy into the immediate rather than to press on toward the eternal.

Philippians 3:7-9, 15 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…Let those of us who are mature think this way…”

In the Apostle Paul’s past he took pride in all of the things he accomplished as a Pharisee because it earned him a place in society and a sense of security and worth. When he got down on himself he just obeyed a few more laws or persecuted a few more Christians. He filled his emotional tank with activities that earned him acceptance with his peers. But when he met Jesus, he sacrificed all of that immediate gratification for the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. Whatever profited his pride he now considered garbage so that he could find his true worth and value in Jesus Christ. He wanted nothing to do with a self-imposed or socially acceptable value system, but rather wanted only the righteousness of God through an intimate relationship with Jesus. He gave up visiting the world’s filling stations and replaced them all with the filling station of God’s grace. The prize he pursued in life was no longer one of immediate gratification, but one of eternal fulfillment.

Isn’t it time for us to put all of the world’s pursuits on the Wonderful Counselor’s couch and let Him evaluate the real reason why we focus on those activities? And isn’t it time for us to honestly admit that many, if not all of them, are done for personal gain and emotional gratification? If that is true, then this is the start of maturity for us, because we will, like Paul, consider those things to be rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ intimately and having Him fill our tanks with His grace.

So the next time you see me shopping, ask me why I’m there. I hope I never have to answer that it’s because I need to replenish my worth. 

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Monday, January 3, 2022

Happy New Year! At this traditional time of resolutions designed to improve the quality of one’s life, I choose to resolve one thing that will bring the quality of life to its fulfillment – to know Jesus. I don’t mean know in the secular sense that I will just know about Him, but in the spiritual sense of knowing intimately, deeply, and completely. I want far more than just knowing what Jesus would do so that I can act appropriately; I want to know the wonder of Him living His life in me.

To illustrate the difference, look closely at this passage of Scripture from First John.

1 John 5:19-20 “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”

The word “know” is used three times in these two verses. The first two times John uses the Greek word eido, which is translated as “to see, to perceive, to know the facts of something.” But when John speaks of knowing Jesus he uses the word ginosko, which means “to come to know intimately with feeling and understanding.” It is the same word that is used in the Jewish culture to describe the sexual union between a husband and wife.

I came to understand the difference in these two concepts in my early adult years when I was in business. When I was hired as an assistant manager at a retail clothing store, my goal was to become a manager. I quickly learned to learn from and then imitate the manager of the store. I knew that my best chance for advancement was to learn the policies of the company and to apply those policies in a way that was obviously working for someone else. It worked. Within 6 months I was promoted to manager of my own store. But I was not very successful at first, because I was trying to manage simply by applying what I knew about policies and procedures. I had lots of knowledge, but I had not yet gotten intimate with the company so that I could act out of love and respect. When I became more familiar with the philosophies and principles of the company, the policies and procedures ceased to be my motivation and I began to be successful because I was living out those same principles from my heart.

To some degree that is what we all want in our relationship with Jesus. For too long many have simply tried to learn the policies and procedures of Christianity and then work out their salvation based on that knowledge. Jesus has offered us an incomparable intimacy that motivates action based on attachment not attainment. It makes all the difference in the world. We can either know the rules or we can know the Ruler. We can be motivated to obedience by intimidation or by intimacy. The choice is totally ours. As for me, I choose to continue to grow by moving beyond knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus intimately, with feeling and understanding. I want to experience the fullness of union with Him, and know the power of His resurrection life in me.

What is your choice? 

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Friday, December 31, 2021

There are two little words that have been spoken to me far more than I can count or care to admit. I’m sure these words have been thought multiplied times more than they have been spoken. If I would just heed the advice in the words then maybe they would stop. It would be nice to not hear them quite so frequently, or even not at all. Maybe the day will come when I have earned the right to not be told, “grow up!“

Yesterday in our devotions we introduced four goals of a Godly life: Grow, Be Strong, Be Wise, and Be Filled With Grace. Let’s dig deeper into what those all mean. Here’s a thought to get you started: immaturity never produces quality fruit. 

Luke 8:11-15 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.  Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.  The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”

Look at the meaning of the parable of the seed that Jesus told in Luke 8. The purpose of seed is to produce a plant that will grow to maturity and multiply itself, producing a harvest of seed after its own kind. The point of the parable is that we are the seed, and we will only produce a harvest if certain things are true of us:

1. We will produce a harvest when we do not allow Satan to destroy the work of God in our hearts. We are productive when we continue to believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation.
2. We will produce a harvest when we do not fall away from God when the going gets tough. We become fruitful when we trust the faithful and powerful and loving hand of God even when the circumstances of life are beating us down.
3. We will produce a harvest when we do not let our focus become one of self-sufficiency and self-preservation. We become mature by keeping an eternal perspective. The real enemy to maturity is pride – pride in solving life’s worries, pride in gaining life’s riches, and pride in experiencing life’s pleasures.
4. We will produce a harvest when we make sure we have a noble and a good heart that is determined to obey the Word of truth we have heard and not let anything keep us from our God-appointed task.

At least one of the four statements above defines your current condition. It would be wise for you to consider where you are on the road to maturity and set some goals for the new year that produce more fruit for the King. Every one of us is producing some kind of fruit after our own kind – it is the law of reproduction created in all of nature by God. One aspect of seed planting we mist consider is this – the seeds we plant in the lives of others will produce fruit, and will be an indicator of the nature of our seed. The fruit being produced in the lives of others may be the result of seeds we planted there. If the product of the seed being planted is not Godly righteousness, then we’d better evaluate the seed. Maybe we need to mature in our faith so our seed bears better fruit.

There are eight references to maturity in the New Testament. Each one says something specific about what our lives should be like as fruit-bearers for the King. This will be a great way to start the new year on Monday.  Let’s study maturity, and how we can be used by the Holy Spirit to plant seeds of righteousness in the lives of others and watch the Kingdom of Jesus Christ grow. 

Pastor John

LifeLink Devotions

Thursday, December 30, 2021

How will our lives be described when we are gone from this earth? What kind of a heritage are we leaving? Here is a description I hope will be true of my life – he grew, he was strong, he was wise, and he was filled with grace.

Those are the same characteristics that describe the first twelve years of the life of Jesus. 

Luke 2:40  “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.”

As we prepare to enter a new year, with all of the possible resolutions for change we may make, let the following verses from the Bible be your guide. They contain the same words that were used to describe Jesus. I think it’s clear that they are to describe us as well. Let the Word of God dwell richly in you.

GROW 

1 Peter 2:2-3 “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Ephesians 4:15-16. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

BE STRONG

Ephesians 3:16  “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”

1 Corinthians 16:13-14  “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.”

BE WISE – 

James 1:5-6. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

1 Corinthians 2:13  “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.”

Ephesians 1:17  “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”

James 3:17 – 18 “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” 

BE FILLED WITH GRACE 

2 Peter 1:2  “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”

Hebrews 4:16   “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” 

2 Timothy 2:1  “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 4:7  “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” 

Now, write your New Year’s resolution from those spiritual principles.

Pastor John