Season 3 Blog 23
Romans 5:10-11 NLT
“For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God”
Happy New Year! Have you started practicing writing or typing ‘2024’ yet? There’s something about opening a new calendar or turning the page in our daytimer to January that signifies a fresh start. We’ve just come through the busyness of Christmas celebrations and the holidays are winding down. It’s like a fresh snowfall – everything seems ready for something new.
I don’t know if you’re into New Year’s resolutions. I’ve tried doing those in the past but find, as most of us do, that many of my resolutions end up staying on the list and never actually becoming a reality in my life. This can happen in our parenting as well. We read a book or see something on social media that makes us think “I want our family to be like that!” Real change takes intentionality and work. We have to overcome old habits and create new ones. It’s not just something we can do on our own. Everyone has to participate in the change, and motivating others to change can be challenging! Depending on who you speak with, a new habit can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months to create. The energy we had after turning the page on our calendar starts to dwindle as we deal with these cold months of the year. We can quickly find ourselves back where we started and our resolutions become a distant memory. I know the feeling!
I came across the Bible verse above and it made me wonder how we think of our relationship with God. Do we think of ourselves as friends with God? Do our children? Or are we in the habit of seeing this relationship as an obligation? New Year’s resolutions can sometimes look like a bunch of new rules to follow in order to become more “spiritual.” As followers of Jesus, we’re not about following a set of rules, we’re in a relationship with the One who created us and saved us! Friends are people we want to hang out with, get to know better, do things with.
We don’t need to create a new list of things to “do” for God this year. Instead, let’s think of how we want to invite God into our lives. It could start with a new prayer: “Welcome into this New Year Jesus,” “We invite you to join us, Heavenly Father,” or “Holy Spirit, let’s have fun together.” Welcoming God into our lives means inviting him to join us in all that we do. It’s a change in how to relate to God in our everyday lives.
We may need to put off some “old” habits and start some new ones this year but instead of creating our own list, let’s ask God what he suggests. He might have some ideas that we never thought of before. He knows what this year ahead holds. He knows the areas we need to grow in, heal in, explore more. He understands our families, work schedules, school schedules. He wants us to invite him into all areas of our lives. Seeing Jesus as our friend and growing in our friendship with him may be the best start to this year.
Let’s start this New Year by inviting Jesus in to be a part of it – all of it!
Sarah has been Pastor of Children & Families at The Journey Church for seven years. Her passion is to see families growing in their faith with Jesus together and living it out in their homes, neighborhoods, and schools, as well as being deeply connected with their church family. To find out more about The Journey Church ministries go to onthejourney.ca. To contact Sarah you can email her at sarah@onthejourney.ca.