1/1 - Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all! I hope everyone had a safe & fun night. I know we did - got to finally hang out with our neighbors of 3 years that somehow we still hadn't spoken to yet. Cool stuff & I'm looking forward to experiencing why God put them in our lives. As for the new year, I think I had given up on resolutions a while ago. Instead I wanted to make a resolution just for that day, and it's the same one I'll make today: to be more faithful. A year long resolution is easy to lose sight of but one for today makes things more defined and clear. I'm not even sure how to gauge how faithful I was in 2009, but it's a little more defined if I consider how I did yesterday.

So I'm still in 1 Timothy, chapter 4 this time. Verse 6 points out something really cool. Paul explains to Timothy that if he'll instruct believers in truth that he'd be a good minister for Christ, "nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which [he has] carefully followed." In recent weeks, I must admit I've been a pretty slack in my devotional time and now I realize that I've been malnourished. Proper nourishment happens on a regular basis. Any healthy person would know that they didn't get where they are by a few healthy choices here and there but rather by a lifestyle of healthy eating. Every day, consistent, almost second nature. Spiritual nourishment is no different. Consistent time with God & investment into that relationship will produce the results of a well-fed individual.

So choosing the right diet is key, I think, to this whole being faithful thing. What I've learned in this time of malnutrition is that I didn't go hungry. I just replaced the good stuff with stuff that wasn't good for me and the benefits, well, didn't turn out to be benefits at all. Logically it makes sense - do what God says and you can be satisfied. Don't do what He says and end up in the midst of confusion and chaos. I think Romans 6:21 put it best, "What fruit did you have in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death."

So here I am in a place of rededicating myself and Lord knows this ain't the first time. So often, in fact, that sometimes I wonder if God is bored with the whole act. In any case, I'm still resolved to press on.