We are pressured to make grand New Year’s Resolutions.
But does God want us to worry about accomplishing big things or does he want us to be faithful in small things?
We don’t have one grand calling that God wants us to somehow discover (as if God has hidden from us that one thing that he wants us to do with our lives and we fail if we can’t figure it out). We only have the many callings laid out before us each day – good work that God has prepared for us to do beforehand, that we should walk in them (see Ephesians 2:10).
We are simply called to be faithful in the small things. We are not called to worry about the new year. We are called to simply “seek the kingdom.” Seek to do the things that participate with King Jesus in making the world right. Today.
You really can’t seek the kingdom in the future (though you can make tentative plans about how you can best attempt to do so) and you can’t seek the kingdom in the past (by regretting the things you did or didn’t do). You can only really seek the kingdom in the present. Instead of worrying about life – how we will make it or what we will do – Jesus urges us to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (See Matthew 6:25-34).
So go small.
What simple things can you commit to doing today and this coming week? How will you be a faithful presence in your family, your church, your neighborhood, your work, and your community? Not in some grand way but in small ways. What are your “next best steps” to seeking God’s kingdom and making things right in the short term?
God’s got the whole year of 2023 in his hands. He’s got things planned for you to do.
And he isn’t asking you to divine the great mystery of what great big thing he has you to do.
He just wants you (and me!) to walk in our daily work, prayerfully being faithful to the things he wants us to do each day, with our eyes open to what’s going on around us.
Photo by Harsh Gupta on Unsplash
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