What are you going to do if God grants you another year of life?

by 0 Comments

Every year I write a lot about ushering in a New Year. That’s because I think it might be a bigger deal than we often make it out to be.

Writing that, I don’t mean to make a New Year to be more than it is! But when we find ourselves standing on the threshold of a New Year, we really need to ask ourselves an important question:

What are you going to do IF God grants you another year of life?

The turning of the calendar from one year to the next is no guarantee you’ll live to see the end of that year. But if God blessed you with another year of living, just what are you going to do with such a gracious gift?

The answer to that really deserves sober consideration and time in prayer. But as you think about that big question, let me suggest using some other questions to help you probe and explore an answer. Following are some questions that might be helpful in thinking through what you might do with another year of life.

How can you living on this planet another year:

    • Bring glory to God?
    • Have at the core of everything loving God and loving others?
    • Be an ambassador for Christ through whom God makes His appeal to the lost (see 2 Cor. 5:18-20)?
    • Obey this command of Christ: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need,” Matthew‬ ‭6:33‬.
    • Use your spiritual gifts by serving in a local church to positively contribute to the body of Christ?
    • Be a good steward of the time, talent, and treasure God blesses you with?
    • Nurture your marriage and your relationships with your children?

Those seven things aren’t the only important things to think and pray about for the coming year, but they can be used as kindling for thought and prayer.

This time of year, several “nay-sayers” come out of the woodwork to mock planning or making resolutions for the New Year, but consider this: God doesn’t owe us a moment of life, receiving another year of it is a very gracious gift. Perhaps we should be a little more sober, a little more thoughtful, a little more prayerful than some suggest.

With that, let me say considering and praying about another year of life can be a fun, joyful, even exciting thing to do. It doesn’t have to be a “heavy” exercise. But too many of us go through year after year giving little to no thought of the kinds of important questions posed above. Being on the threshold of a New Year just might be the right time to go a little deeper and have a little serious consideration for the gift you may be about to receive.

Scotty