Scripture

Colossians 3:10 NLT

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

Consider

As we look ahead into a new calendar year, we cannot escape the many pressing uncertainties that face us. On the rise are risks of COVID infection, the cost of living, and violent crimes against the innocent. The unborn child’s right to live is heatedly debated, and our very identities are being redefined according to political ideologies and agendas. Christians the world over are being mocked, blocked, and martyred, while their fates go largely unreported by secular news organizations.

How can we step into the new year with hope and joy?

Paul gives us the answer in his letter to the church at Colossae. The verse quoted above sits in a passage that begins with the very reason why Christians can move confidently into a confusing and uncertain future:

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ, who is your life. (vv. 1-4)

Our Christian reality is different from the reality defined by the world around us. As followers of Jesus, we have been reborn into the family of God, given citizenship in a kingdom under the rule of God’s love and goodness, and spiritually oriented toward the things that matter in heaven rather than what our culture deems essential.

Paul sums up his advice in verse 10, which we can take with us into the new year as resolutions:

1. Put on your new nature. Don’t let the world define you. Consciously commit every day to living as a child of God, centered in the knowledge that God loves and cares for you.
2. Be renewed. Open your mind and heart to the Spirit’s refining influence. Let God reshape your thoughts and attitudes to reflect eternal values in the way you perceive yourself and others.
3. Learn to know your Creator. God promises that those who seek to know him will find him. Look for God in everyday moments, in the beauty and order of God’s created world, and in the reading of God’s living Word. Listen to the promptings of the Spirit in your thoughts, prayers, and dreams.
4. Become like him. The more like Jesus we become, the better we can love, understand, and follow the ways of God. We are told to embrace the mind of Christ and obey his teachings so that we may live in ways that bring honor and glory to our Creator.

As good and helpful as these four resolutions are, we won’t get very far into the new year before we fail. God never meant for us to achieve a new and perfect righteousness on our own. Therefore, resolve to pray daily for awareness of God’s steadfast presence in your life. Lean on his eternal truths that will not be shaken by the wavering edicts and ideologies of the world but will help you to stand strong and firm in the name of Jesus Christ.

Pray

I pray with the psalmist: The LORD is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. –Psalm 145:13b-14 NRSV

Reflect

2 Chronicles 7:14; 1 Corinthians 2:16

Ponder

Which of the four resolutions is most difficult for me? How can I pray for God’s help?