For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
- Titus 2:11-13
Anyone who’s been to the gym this week will be the first to tell you: ‘tis the season for New Year’s resolutions. With the ball having dropped in Times Square and the calendar now flipped to 2024, this is the week when people take stock of their lives and decide what changes they want to make.
The most popular goals are varied—better fitness, finances, and mental health top the list. But the overarching theme for these and all other resolutions is self-improvement. People have an idea of who they want to be, and New Year’s resolutions are intended to help get them there.
The Bible tells believers to, in a similar way, look with expectation to the future that awaits us and allow that future to affect your present. For anyone who is in Christ, glory awaits, eternal life and fellowship with God. The things of this world that drag you down and keep you up at night will be cast aside, and the temptations that cause your eye to wander from the Lord will grow dim in the light of his glory.
So the invitation for today—indeed, the calling and command—is to orient your life toward that future, to live as a citizen of the kingdom of God even as you’re still a resident of this world. Guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit, fix your eyes on Jesus and make his Word the chief determinant of your actions. If you’ve declared that Jesus is Lord, then prove it.
Scripture promises that someday every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Today and in this year to come, may you resolve to live that future in the present tense.
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