Happy New Year!
At this time, every year, millions make New Year’s resolutions that will be broken before the year’s end. But there could be one resolution that would be of the greatest benefit ever to anyone who might get started on it.
What if everyone resolved to know Jesus? What if a real determination settled in to seek Him with great diligence for no reason other than getting to know Him better?
What if we were resolved to know Him according to how He wished to reveal Himself to us and through the means He prescribed to do it?
What if we were to adopt the attitude of the great apostle Paul? Where he declared in,
Philippians 3:7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
If all were to press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, this world would see Jesus in the church more than ever before. Everything pertaining to life and godliness is in Christ!
That means if all were to pursue Jesus with the kind of passion Paul describes here in Philippians, there would be no way anyone outside the church could say they had no example of what it means to know Jesus and to walk with Him. Better than that, many would walk with such strong assurance of faith and hope, experiencing transformation in their lives and knowing Jesus more intimately. The excitement over the promise of His soon return would be great, and the desire to see others know Him would also increase.
There’s just no way to lose when we purpose to know Jesus more. So, with this thought in mind, I wish you a Happy New Year filled with knowing Jesus more intimately than ever before.
