Living to Please the Lord

Are you one that makes New Year's resolutions?  You know, read through the Bible in a year...go on a diet.  Allow me to be transparent.  The last time I read through my Bible, from front cover to back cover, was in college.  It was a requirement for one of my Bible classes.  I actually had to read it through four times in one semester.  A few years ago I made a New Year's resolution to read through the Bible.  I made it to about the first of April.  Then I started having to catch up.  Then I just quit trying.  Oh, I didn't stop reading my Bible altogether.  I could never do that.  I would dry up and blow away!  I just stopped reading through my Bible, from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22, page by page.  My normal habit is to read through a book in one day.  If it is a big book, I may take a few days.  If it's a really big book, a week.  It was much more comfortable for me to go back to that habit.  As far as dieting, I lasted four days into January one year.  Based on my past record, for me to make those two New Year's resolutions would be setting myself up for failure.

This year, instead of making resolutions, I decided that I would put my thoughts on living to please the Lord in those two areas.  Here's how that would affect my life.  The Word of Christ would dwell in me richly and I would eat responsibly.  As I am writing this it hit me that I am talking about spiritual nourishment and physical nourishment.  Both are needed to thrive.  We need to be in the Word to thrive spiritually, and we need to eat responsibly to thrive in the physical realm.  When we get lax in either discipline, and they are disciplines because they take effort, we are affected in a negative way.  

If you are like most people, making a New Year's resolution won't result in a positive, life long change.  But if we set our thoughts on pleasing the Lord and living for His glory, it becomes about Him.  That should be our motivation for doing anything.   It does take some planning, to be in the Word consistently and faithfully and to eat responsibly.  Then we need to follow through with those plans.  The great thing about living for His glory is that it always reaps wonderful blessings and dividends for us!