Unlocking the Bible logo
  • Explore
    • Broadcasts
    • LifeKEYS
    • Sermons
  • Articles
  • Store
  • Open The Bible
  • About
    • Colin Smith
    • Our Staff
    • Contact
Donate
  • General Donation
  • Donation (UK)
  • Gift of Any Amount Resource
Close
Close
  • Explore
  • Articles
  • Store
  • Donate
    • General Donation
    • Gift of Any Amount Resource
    • Donation (UK)
  • More
    • About
    • LifeKEYS Daily
    • Mobile App
    • Stories of Impact
    • Station Finder
    • Radio Inquiries
    • Contact
  • Translation
    • English
    • Spanish
    • Mandarin
    • Chinese
    • Hindi
    • Korean
    • Arabic
    • Japanese
    • Hungarian
    • French
    • Italian
    • Polish
    • Russian
    • Indonesian
    • Dutch
    • Tagalog (Filipino)
    • German
+
Denise Kohlmeyer
Denise is a writer and Bible teacher. She has been…
Denise Kohlmeyer
Denise is a writer and Bible teacher. She has been published in print and online magazines and blogs, such as Just Between Us, Today’s Christian Living, Christian Woman, Desiring God, Revive Our Hearts, and Christian Devotions. She loves Jesus and desires to share his love and life with those around her, whether verbally or in print. She lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband of 22 years and their three teenagers.

Denise Kohlmeyer

Topics:
Culture Spiritual Growth
Action

12 Reflections to Replace New Year’s Resolutions

Monday, December 31, 2018

As Christians, we believe lasting hope and change comes not from our own efforts and resolutions, but from our devotion to, and conformity to reflection on Jesus Christ. So instead of offering resolutions for the new year, I want to offer a New Year’s reflection.

Read these each month and use the theme for that month as you study God’s word. In doing so, you will grow in greater conformity to our precious Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. You can anticipate that, because it is true!

JANUARY: LOVE

This is by far the most defining characteristic of Jesus. Throughout his earthly ministry (and even now!) He exuded love to everyone he encountered, whether saint or sinner. As Christians, love should be our distinguishing characteristic, as well. “Everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:35).

In the new year, let Christ-like love rule the day. While we should never compromise God’s Word, we can still express brotherly love to others in our everyday interactions with them.

Reflection: In what specific, tangible ways does Christ love others in the Bible?

FEBRUARY: COMPASSION

Compassion is borne out of love for others. It means “to suffer together.” Compassion compels us to come alongside and partner with someone who is suffering, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.

Scripture recounts several instances when Jesus was “moved with pity” (Mark 1:41). This God-given feeling caused him to move toward the sufferers out of love for them and do something to help them.

Reflection: Read John 11. Reflect on Jesus’s compassion and love for Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. How does it change your life to know that Jesus’s weeps with us?

MARCH: FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness is why Jesus came to earth, to die on a cross so that we could be forgiven of our sins and receive eternal life. Thanks to God’s great forgiveness of our sins, our relationship with God can be wonderfully restored.

It is the same with our earthly relationships. Unforgiveness keeps us separated, but forgiveness reunites us. Forgiveness enables us to lay aside the debt of wrongs and sins done to us (and vice versa). Forgiveness heals fractured relationships.

Reflection: Please read the story of Joseph in Genesis 37-50. Meditate on it this month and think about those in your life whom you need to forgive. Read also Luke 23. Ask yourself: What does it mean for my life if Jesus could forgive those who crucified him?

APRIL: HUMILITY

Humility means “lowliness of mind, modesty.” As the saying goes, “It is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” Humility is a mindset, an attitude, the opposite of pride, “haughtiness, disdain, arrogance.”

Hear this from Philippians 2:5-7:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Reflection: How can you follow Christ’s example by “taking the form of a servant” and begin to cultivate humility in your own life?

MAY: OBEDIENCE

Just as compassion is an outgrowth of love, obedience is an outgrowth of humility. “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

Jesus’ obedience manifested itself in doing the will of his Father, not his own (John 6:38). He made God’s greatest wish and desire—that none should perish, but that all should have eternal life—and made it his own (2 Peter 3:9).

Reflection: In what way are you struggling to obey God right now? How does Christ’s obedience move you to be more obedient of God’s will for your life?

JUNE: PEACE

Even before his birth, Isaiah said that one of Jesus’s names would be Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus offers this peace through salvation. Jesus’s broken body tore down “the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14) between God and us. Amen!

Peace is yet another characteristic that should define God’s children, so much so that it is listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

Reflection: Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). How did Jesus bring peace to those he came in contact with? How does he bring us peace today?

JULY: SERVICE

Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins was (and is) the most significant act of love, compassion, humility, and obedience ever expressed. He willingly gave himself in death, so that you and I could have life. It was his ultimate act of service for sinful mankind, having come “not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28).

Reflection: Read Matthew 23:11-12. Meditate on all that Jesus has done (and continues to do) for you, to help you begin to cultivate a sacrificial servant’s heart for others.

AUGUST: PRAYERFUL

Prayer, first and foremost, is to exchange our own wishes (our wills) for God’s. Recall when Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. He asked God to take away the cup of death which he was about to drink. But, ultimately, Jesus prayed, “…yet, not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Notice the exchange of Jesus’s wish for God the Father’s?

Reflection: Jesus also knew that he could not fulfill his ministry without his Father’s help and guidance, Therefore, throughout his three-year ministry, he frequently withdrew from everyone and went to isolated places to be alone with God (Luke 5:16, 6:12; Mark 1:35). How can you withdraw for times of spiritual refreshment and seek God’s help and guidance?

SEPTEMBER: AVAILABLE, ATTENTIVE

Often, we are so consumed with our own lives and schedules that we aren’t as available or attentive to the hurting, the needy, and the spiritually lost as we should be.

Consider how most of Jesus’ three-year ministry was spent in open, public places (by the sea of Galilee, on mountaintops, at public bathing pools, on roadways). People could come to him at any time. And they did. By the thousands. Jesus intentionally made himself accessible, welcoming everyone, both saint and sinner. (See Luke 7:36-50, 17:11-19; Mark 2:1-12, 14-17)

Reflection: How has God been available and attentive to you during your journey with him?

OCTOBER: TRUTHFUL

God the Father cannot lie, and neither can Jesus, God the Son. (Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 6:18).

Unlike Jesus, however, we can lie, exaggerate, bend the truth. It is part of our sinful nature. Yet, believers are called to “take off your old self with its practices…[and] do not lie to each other” (Colossians 3:9).

Reflection: What truth did Jesus speak that you most want to share with someone you know?

NOVEMBER: PATIENCE

When the confused disciples couldn’t grasp the meanings of many of his parables, Jesus patiently explained them. When Thomas doubted who he was and demanded proof before he believed, he patiently complied. Praise God! For he is patient with us, his stubborn, errant children (Psalm 103:8).

Resolution: Make Romans 15:5 your prayer this month: “May the God who gives [patience] endurance and encouragement give [me] the same attitude of mind toward each other, which Christ Jesus had.”

DECEMBER: HOLY

Holiness is not merely a set of moral codes to follow. Moral behaviors are the outgrowth of an already holy character. In Christ, we are holy at the moment of our conversion. Our lifestyle choices and outward conduct, through the ongoing transformation of our lives, then reflect that holiness.

Just as God is “set apart and separate,” we are to spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and in some cases, physically disassociate ourselves from the world’s sinful activities, values, beliefs, and philosophies.

Resolution: If you have put your faith in the free gift of grace, found through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9), then Christ’s holiness has been attributed to you. What good works has God “prepared beforehand” (v. 10) in your life?

[Photo Credit: Unsplash]

More like this

person about to start reading the Bible again Thursday, December 27, 2018

On Reading, and Re-Reading, Familiar Bible Passages

Davis Wetherell
Why Did the Lord Have to Come as a Baby Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Why Did the LORD Have to Come to Earth?

Trey Sonnenberg
Comparing the Bible's First and Last Miraculous Birth Monday, December 24, 2018

Comparing the Bible’s First and Last Miraculous Birth

Davis Wetherell

Featured

Image - What to Pray When You Don't Know What to Pray
Monday, May 16, 2022

What to Pray When We Don’t Know What to Pray

Sandy Carter
Monday, May 16, 2022

Conscience: Christ Changes How You Evaluate 2, Part 1

Colin Smith
Living By Faith
Sunday, June 20, 2021

Faith’s Reward

Colin Smith

Get Unlocking the Bible's Weekly Email

This Week at Unlocking the Bible features new articles, radio programs, devotionals, and ministry updates

P.O. Box 3454 Barrington, IL 60011
Call 866-UNLOCKED
  • About
    • Colin Smith
    • Our Staff
    • Contact Us
  • Teaching
    • Radio Programs
    • Station Finder
    • Archive
  • Articles
    • Today’s Article
  • Features
    • LifeKEYS Daily
    • Stories of Impact
    • Station Finder
    • Mobile App
  • Store
    • Audio Messages
    • Bibles
    • Bible Study Tools
    • Audiobooks
  • Donate
    • General Donation
    • Gift of Any Amount Resource
    • Donation – United Kingdom
  • Radio Inquiries
  • Privacy Policy
© Unlocking the Bible 2022