A New Year Devotional

A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other! In fact, here are some startling stats about typical resolutions for the new year in America:

• 27% break their resolutions by the first week of January.

• 31% lose their resolutions by the second week of January.

• 41% do not last more than one month with their resolutions.

• 55% have stopped their resolutions after six months

Incredibly, less than 5% of American adults participate in 30 minutes of physical activity each day and only one in three adults receive the recommended amount of physical activity each week.

For many Americans, the lack of commitment to their physical health is mirrored by the way they approach their spiritual health.

I also want to encourage you to make a new commitment to put worship as a priority and grow together with a local community of faith in the new year.

Here are some great worship quotes to consider for the new year:

• “Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate!” (Francis Chan)

• “Worship is the most powerful, joy producing, hope sustaining, life-altering thing a person can do!” (James MacDonald).

• “I need to worship because, without it, I lose a sense of wonder and gratitude and plod through life with blinders on.” (John Ortberg)

• “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” (Psalm 95:6-7).

Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher from the 1600’s, is often quoted as saying, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator.” Pascal is saying that our happiness in the year ahead will not come simply through financial success.

Have you heard the story of the king who fell into a very serious depression? Nothing could lift his spirits. His servants tried everything—music, dancing, court jesters, lavish banquets — nothing seemed to help him. Finally, an old, wise man came to the king with an unusual piece of advice: “O King, if you can obtain the shirt off the back of a truly happy man, you yourself will be happy.”

Upon hearing those words, the king ordered his army to search the four corners of the earth and bring him the shirt off the back of a truly happy man. Weeks passed, then months. Finally, his soldiers returned. “O King, after many days and much searching, we found a truly happy man. But, your Majesty......the man was not wearing a shirt!”

My ultimate prayer for you and your family this new year is that you would understand that your joy in life will never be found through the acquisition of more THINGS. Jesus said, "In ME you will have peace" (John 16:33a).

Keep your eyes on Jesus in the new year ahead and receive this blessing from the very Word of God:

Numbers 6:24-26: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace”.

- Dr. Larry Petton

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