My 2010 Resolution...

We're coming down to the end of another year. I am blessed to be able to say that, by God's grace, I have grown more in the spirit this year than I did last year...or any other year for that matter. Not everyone can say that. My Christian walk just keeps getting better and better. My relationship with Christ is getting sweeter and sweeter. Believe me when I say that my prayer life and time in the Word is not would it could be. I could be spending more time in the prayer closet and more time in the scriptures. But all of this lack has been recently overshadowed by one major element: Hunger. The Lord has developed in me a new hunger for His presence. I believe that people never have a hunger to deny themselves, take up their crosses, fast, pray, read the bible and perform all of the disciplines of the faith. THE HUNGER IS FOR GOD! And if God can be experienced through self denial then so be it! Honestly, I don't have a hunger to pray...unless God meets me in the place of prayer. I don't have a hunger to read the bible...unless Christ is revealed in scripture. I don't have a hunger for the disciplines of the faith...unless Christ is revealed in and through them. When Christ is not revealed in the law, the law is burdensome. The disciplines of the faith are a burden and they are not enjoyable. But when Christ is revealed...WOW! This new hunger will drive you to pray, read, fast, worship, fellowship and everything else. And if you hunger and thirst after Righteousness, you WILL be filled.

So my resolution for 2010 is to allow this hunger that He has put inside of me to push me to the conformity of His image. I want to look more like Christ. He is so beautiful. If that includes self denial (which it will) then so be it! If this hunger kills every self-motivated passion that I have then I pray that my belly lead me to the grave! I can't straddle the fence this year. It's reckless abandonment or no commitment at all. And my quest will be to find out what exactly abandonment to Christ looks like on a daily basis. This encompasses so much for me, especially since I hold the title of "youth director" at my church. I not only have the responsibility of leading my family into radical hunger...I also have a hand in determining how radical hunger can best be satisfied among teens in the corporate setting of the church. (If you're reading this and you're a teen who's not hungry for God...well...I don't know what to tell you. You don't need a youth pastor, you need a fresh face to face with God himself. My job is to partner with God in seeing the hungry get fed and not for the disinterested to get entertained.) Oooh I better stop. Sometimes we're like "well you can make Christ attractive to the young people can't you?" As if He needs us to add makeup to His already brilliant face. We don't make Christ look attractive. We decrease so He can show His attractiveness through us! Anyways...

So yeah...that's what I want. I resolve to let this hunger lead me to more and more conformity into the image Jesus Christ. Whatever that looks like...that's what I want! Whatever your resolutions are, I hope that they are in line with the ultimate goal of looking like Jesus...which should be the ultimate goal of every Christian. Pray for hunger because true hunger makes people do crazy things...such as the disciplines of the Christian lifestyle.

Grace and Peace