Approaching Christmas and the New Year, we tend to be very busy as we prepare for the holidays and the year’s end. However, many of us are also afforded at least some time to slow down and to be with family and friends. Additionally, this can be a time of reflection on the past year and an opportunity to think about making resolutions to improve one’s life in the future. Many of these resolutions tend to focus on living a healthier life, making wiser decisions related to money, or getting organized in some way, and these are certainly worthwhile goals. However, I would suggest that an essential striving for our lives all year around and not just as a New Year’s resolution, should be setting our minds fully on Christ, the maker of all things (1 Colossians 1:16). A primary reason for making Christ central to our life is because this has eternal significance, while most other New Year’s resolutions are only temporal. I appreciate how Andrew Murray stated the importance of Christ to the centrality of our lives by noting that “Whatever a man sets his heart on exercises a mighty influence on the life, and leaves its stamp upon his character. He that follows after vanity becomes vain. He that trusts in a god of his own fancy will find his religion an illusion. He that sets his heart upon the living God will find the living God take possession and fill the heart” (1894, 1993: The Holiest of All, p.59).
My longing is that each one of us takes time this upcoming season to truly reflect on our lives and where we set our mind and our hope. If we are honest with ourselves, we most likely do not want to explore where we spend our time and where we ultimately place our hope because it would reveal much about our sinful nature and our true character. Did you ever stop to think what someone would discover about us if we kept a record of how we spend our time each week and how we acted in each of those activities, or if someone assessed the amount of time and the material we explored on the computer during the last seven days, or if the content of our social media accounts was evaluated? Additionally, if we were honest with ourselves, we would be able to acknowledge how many people and things that are in our lives that can be or actually become a distraction to placing our trust fully in Christ. Think about those things in life you enjoy most for example, and whether or not if faced with the choice, you would be willing to give them up to serve the King of Kings. Honestly, this is where I find the biggest struggle, and where I continually have to surrender and ask for forgiveness. Well, taking time this season to intently reflect on our lives could be a good place to start in truly setting our mind upon the living God so as to get to know Him in all His glory.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20, NASB).