The new year has begun and it is a great time to change your life for the better. The New Year’s resolutions may not have lasted very long or may soon be only a memory. The best way to have a great year and life is to put God in your life, in the proper place.
You may have tried many things to change your life, but God will change it for good if you will follow his word, obey it and live it. Life can be a lonely long journey but it does not have to be that way.
The gospel of Luke tells of a time when Joseph and Mary the parents of Jesus had traveled to Jerusalem to observe the feast of the Passover. This was a yearly trek that was made by the Jews. After the days of the feast were fulfilled, the family started back home. There were quite a large number of people in the company making the journey, and Joseph and Mary failed to notice that Jesus was not with them.
They had gone a day’s journey when they started looking for Jesus. Looking among family members and friends they could not find him so they went back to Jerusalem to look for the boy. After returning to Jerusalem it took them a while to locate the lad. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting with the teachers asking and answering questions (Luke 2).
Today many are making life’s journey without Jesus. They have never realized how much they need him in their life. Others believe that if one member of their family is religious then that is enough for the whole family. This simply is not true, for each person is accountable for themselves.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). Everyone needs to have Jesus with them in the journey of life. Thousands of dollars are spent each year in self-help books when the only book needed is the Bible.
While putting God in your life is a personal thing, it must also be seen that all men are to follow Jesus the same way. The gospel message preached in the time of the apostles is the same message that is to be preached today. God is not a respecter of persons. When Peter was sent for by Cornelius he came to this realization that all men are able to come to God (Acts 10:34).
It is by obeying the gospel that we get Jesus in our lives. We must obey even as those who heard the first gospel message preached obeyed.
Peter told them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost … And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls (Acts 2:38, 40-41).
Have a great year, put God in your life and make him first in your life and you will not only have a great year, but a great life.