We’re usually only a few days into each new year when most of us have already been reminded how hard it is to establish a new good habit or break an old bad one. At the start of 2007 my wife and I outvoted our 10-year-old granddaughter, whom we raise fulltime, with one of our resolutions. It was that we not allow the television to be on during our evening meal. After four nights with this routine, our granddaughter who much prefers the Disney channel to our conversation, was objecting, as she had done before. She complained about this new year’s “revolution,” and we got a good laugh. She didn’t catch why we were laughing, but then it struck me. Any really good new year’s reSolution will probably require a reVolution.
That revolution is usually within ourselves. We must revolt against our own laziness, against the comfort zone we’ve created around ourselves, against the mindlessness of doing things the same old way and getting the same old results. Are you leading any good revolutions in your life this year? To make time for God’s Word every day, to deal with others gently, to exercise body and mind every day, to eat less and sleep more, to spend more time with your children?
One of my longtime favorite books is by H. S. Vigeveno, entitled Jesus, The Revolutionary. Not only was Jesus a revolutionary in first-century Palestine, but He is a revolutionary in each of our lives, if we allow Him to be. He is not satisfied to tweak us here and there. He wants to replace the old person completely. “Newness of life” with Jesus is not connected with January 1 or any other date. It is ours every day, if we’re willing to die to self and revolt against slavery to sin. Read Romans 6 again and then lead a revolution in yourself.
Article copyright (c) 2009 by Charles G. Mickey. All rights reserved.
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