How to Share Your Faith Using The New Year
As you launch into 2006, have you taken any time to reflect on the big picture of how you want to invest your time, talent and effort in this new year?
It's easy to steam through daily life, putting one foot in front of the other, never stopping for a glimpse of the big picture of where you've been and where you're headed. As a teen you may think it's tough to have a perspective that goes much beyond making it through the next day of classes at school. But as the saying goes, if you aim at nothing - you will most likely hit it every time! So take a few moments and give some thought to the following questions.
When you look back at the end of 2006 what do you want to have accomplished in your world or developed in your character or relationships over the course of the past year? Is the following the kind of list you're eager to be looking at on Dec.31, 2006?
- Blew off or blew up my personal relationship with God or others.
- Invested huge amounts of time on excessive TV watching, video gaming and web surfing.
- Cultivated my abilities to be self-absorbed, self-centered and self-conscious.
- Acquired lots of stuff in an effort to fit in, feel happy and be fulfilled.
- Developed a finely honed sense of sarcasm that enabled me to offend others on demand.
Few people deliberately set out to rack up that kind of list of accomplishments! But without some forethought, consistent commitment and effort, it can happen by default. You can very easily arrive at the end of another year with very little of eternal significance or lasting value appearing on your list.
Spend some time thinking and praying about what God's calling you to in this coming year. If you invest the effort, perhaps you'll end the year with a list of accomplishments that looks more like this:
- Deepened my personal relationship with God through regular times of prayer and reflective Bible reading.
- Wrestled with an area of sin in my life, making progress through prayer or having a friend who held me accountable.
- Was involved and committed to my local 'body of Christ' - my Youth Group or circle of Christian friends.
- Served God by using my gifts, abilities and resources to reach out to my world through serve and share projects.
- Shared the God's love and Good News with unreached friends in conversation or by inviting them to Youth Group.
After you've given this some thought and prayer, step out and have a conversation with your unreached friends about what they hope to look back on as accomplishments at the end of 2006. Who knows, it may open the door to discussing the real meaning and purpose of life!
