Kicking off a new year should always involve asking some hard questions of yourself. Yes, this should be done throughout the year, but the beginning of a year is never a bad place to start. In my last post, I provided questions for you to consider (check them out here) as you begin a new year. My hope for this post is that you will be challenged to think about more specific issues that need to be addressed in your life. We’re all sinners, even after we decide to follow Jesus and call Him Lord of our lives. It’s a daily battle to resist the temptations that surround us from our flesh, Satan, and the world. We need the help of the Holy Spirit. I also believe it’s vital to ask the hard questions, especially when we don’t like the answers.
When answering this question, I don’t want you to make a list of the good things you’ve done so you can boast in them. My hope is that you will honestly look at your life and think about how you are different from the world, or how you are similar. In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus tells us that we are to be the light of the world. He does not tell us to be the same as the world or like the world. And 1 John 2:15-17 explains that we are not to love the world or anything in it. Yes, this is tough. But God provides help.
Are you being a light to the world? Do you love the world or anything in it? To help you answer these, here are three questions to ask yourself as a follower of Christ:
What do you love?
In 2019, what was your greatest love? Do you want it to be your love in 2020? The world has a lot of distracting things to offer. And we are so easily pleased. It’s hard not to follow the world and grow to love money, sex, technology, entertainment, sports, material possessions, popularity, and so on. These are not necessarily bad in themselves. It’s when we begin to love them like we can’t live without them. That’s when we have a problem.
The Bible tells us to “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). Our greatest love should be God and the second should be others. I know I have a lot of work to do in this area of my life. Thankfully, God sent us His Son, who sacrificed Himself out of His love for His Father and for us. Jesus is our perfect example to follow. God also gave us His Spirit to live in us and help us by always pointing us back to Jesus.
If you claim to be a follower of Christ, Jesus should be your first love. What are you loving more than Jesus? Take some time to pray and ask God to show you what is distracting you from Him, and ask Him to become your greatest love. We want to love differently than the world because we have Someone better to love and to share with the world. If we don’t live in a way that displays this, then why would the world choose Jesus?
Where does your time go?
Another area to help answer this question is looking at where your time goes. When we love something, that is where we devote our time and energy. How much time do you give to movies, television, videogames, social media, your phone, boyfriend or girlfriend, your job, your family? Again, these are not bad, unless they become your life’s pursuit and purpose. I know I need to adjust the amount of time I spend watching movies and the amount of time I devote to my phone. They distract me from things that matter.
Consider taking a break from some of the things that take your time. Write out a plan and schedule that you can stick to. Make more time for intentionally pursuing God. He desires a relationship with us. He doesn’t want us to go about our life without spending any time with Him. Our time is best spent with Him because He should be our greatest love.
Who or what do you depend on?
When you’re in trouble, who or what do you turn to first? Do you try to handle all situations on your own? Do you depend on your phone to save the day? Do you rest in the amount of money you have in the bank? Or do you turn to God? I think we fail to turn to God first because we want some sort of instant result or answer. God doesn’t usually work in the way that we want, so we don’t turn to Him first. But He is all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful, and all-seeing. He can do the impossible. He is trustworthy and faithful. His Word never fails.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” How can you lean on God more in this new year? And not just when you’re in trouble, but also with the basic necessities of life, especially when you think you have everything covered. We are to depend on God with everything. Surrender the control you think you have and lean on God. The world will notice.
After considering these questions and taking time to reflect on your life, I want to challenge you to take your relationship with Jesus more seriously in this new year. He paid a great price to save all nations. And He calls us to share this incredible and urgent message with everyone. It starts by living a life that stands out from the world. A life of following Jesus.
I’ll leave you with one more big question: If the world saw how you live today, would people see Jesus and choose to follow Him? Or would they simply continue living like the rest of the world?
