Pursuing New

Proverbs 21:21

I’ve been thinking about the New Year and my life as we enter 2022. I set four goals for 2021: a spiritual goal, personal goal, family goal, and general goal. I essentially reached my personal goal. I should hit my spiritual and family goals by the end of the week. My general goal is one I will carry in to next year. Ultimately, my goals are about helping me be the best me that God created and calls me to be.

I have found that setting goals as opposed to resolutions — and breaking them down categorically — helps me pursue them. That idea of pursuing goals helps me remain active as opposed to passive. It helps me manage procrastination and temptation, and when I slip, get back on track. Such is the nature of the pursuit. I think this is precisely why our verse for the day encourages the pursuit for righteousness and what we will find when we do.

Righteousness in the biblical sense means following God’s moral law. We cannot achieve righteousness on our own, because it is imparted by God to those who commit to follow Jesus. Following Jesus grants us the gift of life, illuminating our spiritual darkness (John 1:4), and revealing God’s abundance which can only be discovered through Christ (John 10:10). God’s moral law comes down to one word: love. When we love in the way God commands, we reveal not just who we are, but whose we are (John 13:33-35).

I welcome you to follow my model if you are thinking about goals for 2022. Set a goal for your spiritual life, your own personal development, being better for your family, and another that can impact your general living. As you set these goals, it’s my hope that you do so in such a way where you pursue God’s law of love. That will help you discover something far more significant than a new year, but a new life rooted in Jesus and producing the fruit of transformation.