Resolution Day Devotion

I woke up this morning with numbers in my head… 1…1…15.  Yes, today is January 1, 2015, it is also the reference for a favorite Bible verse, 1 Timothy 1:15:

“It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” (NASB)

I love reading about and from the Apostle Paul:  great achievements and great suffering, intelligence and faith, strength and weakness, theological writer and disciple maker.  He knew well his Savior and followers of Jesus hold him in high regard.  And yet he considered himself to be foremost of sinners.  He also knew his own background of persecutor, earlier leader against the new Christian movement.  I believe in this verse he also shows he had gotten so close to the Light, Jesus, the light revealed all his hidden sins.  There was not much room for darkness and shadows in which to hide.  The closer he got to the light, the better he knew Jesus, every sin and weakness of life was lit up… “I must be the worst of sinners!” he had to lament.

But in spite of the weakness, Paul tells us readily here that Jesus came to save us.  This is Good News.  How can this change my life today?

Through abundant grace, finding mercy, we can believe in Jesus for eternal life.  Such life starts now, here.

1/1/15 is also Resolution Day for many in our culture.  New year, new me… as my dad used to say, “starting the diet of the century,” we would all laugh.  I also have used those words.  We laugh about resolutions because we fail.  And of course we do.  We fail, our strength is too weak.  We make jokes of resolutions.  However, the power to succeed is right in front of us, the abundant grace and mercy found in Jesus, who then empowers us to do what we in ourselves cannot.

Therefore, on this Resolution Day, I, in Christ, will drive a stake into the ground that 1/1/15 is the day I let Him empower me to be resolved to ______________.”

(I encourage any reading this to open up the context,  1 Tim 1:14-19, which is rich with truth upon which to meditate further and apply to life).