Spent with Jesus
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
The best New Year's resolution anyone can make is to "continue to live your life" in Christ Jesus the Lord. Christianity is not about following a series of rules or teachings. It is daily communion with Jesus. What can this mean for us?
We experience life lived for other people. Everything Jesus did was for the benefit of someone else. Nothing was for the purpose of selfish gain or creating fame for himself.
Living with Jesus will bring further learning and growth. God is not finished with any of us. We have not arrived at the level of perfection. Daily living with Jesus will bring new experiences, new insights, and a clearer understanding of God's place in life.
Security comes from the daily presence of our living Lord. We do not know what this year will bring to us. There may be sickness, loss, or disappointment. Living our lives in Jesus gives us a safe place from which to experience the events of the year. We will never be abandoned, no matter what storms come.
A year lived in communion with Jesus will yield many fruits, especially love, joy, and peace. What gifts we have been given! We have a new year and an old Friend to share it with us.
For Reflection: What does it mean for me to live with Jesus?
A Prayer Seed:
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us;
With ever joyful hearts, and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in God’s grace, and guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all ills in this world and the next.
Martin Rinkart, 1636
