Well here we are at the start of a new season (year); a
time to reflect on last season and determine how to make this new one the best
yet…
I’ve made reference many times in these weekly devotions
to my friend Jason Otter. Jason is the best basketball trainer I have ever
seen; he has an amazing ability to correct movement… to make players efficient
by not only eliminating wrong movement, but also eliminating wasted movement.
As I was preaching yesterday in FL, I followed suit with
having a bit of a New Year’s Resolutions type of message… and basically
resolutions are where we typically make promises to be better “players.” What
was very typical yesterday is that I found many adults that no longer make resolutions,
because the older one gets, the more we recognize how seldom we follow through
with the resolutions. When it boils down to it most are not resolute about
their plans, more just hopeful or wishful thoughts.
The definition of “resolution” is “the firm decision to
do or not do something.” (Oxford Dictionary)
As I taught on the subject yesterday, I started, in
typical fashion, with the message of how we get on God’s team in the first
place… the message of “by grace through faith”! And with that I admitted that
many accuse me, and others that teach the freeness of salvation, of giving
people a license to sin. I then stole a bunch of points from my dear friend
Grant Hawley (executive director of the Free Grace Alliance.) Grant wrote an
article entitled “God hates sin BECAUSE He loves the sinner.”
Grant stated that when people ask what prevents a person,
saved only by just believing in what Christ has done, from just going out and
living like the devil? I LOVE Grant’s response: “Why on earth would you want to
do that?”
1. Sin
is an evil tyrant that seeks to bring you into slavery (Rom 7) [wretched man]
2. Sin
makes people miserable and destroys everything it touches (Romans 6:21-23)
3. Sin,
at the very least, dissipates (wastes) your life away leaving you feeling empty
(Eph 5:18)
Notice that Grant, like Jason does with basketball
training, states that we should do away with the wrong habits… not just the
things “against the rules,” but things that are a waste. He is basically saying
if a believer wants joy and peace, he needs to live a spiritually efficient
life.
Yet the title of his article is where the real truth lies…
it is my encouragement for you this week and this year… it is the thing I want us
to be resolute about…
I don’t think that ultimately the answer is making a
check list of what I will or won’t do… BUT instead resolving to trust God! When
we understand that He warns about thing BECAUSE He loves us… and recognize that
living in the way He tells us we should live is simply a matter of trusting this
truth… we will then find victory and its results of love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, etc.
2020 Resolution: Holiness [Be holy because He is holy! (1
Pet 1:13-16)]
How is holiness attained? Romans 1:17 For in it the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as It is written, “the
just shall live by faith.” COMMIT TO TRUSTING GOD, not just for your justification
but also for your sanctification! It is a guaranteed path to being a “better
player”!
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