What are you going to do about it?

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “A fresh start in a new year”

Our Bible verse for today: “There is profit in all hard work, but endless talk leads only to poverty.” Proverbs 14:23 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “What are you going to do about it?”

So, we have just spent more than a month-and-a-half thinking about, talking about, and praying about New Years resolutions. We have asked the Holy Spirit to show us areas of our lives that we need to change or improve upon. By now each of us should have a short, tight list of Holy Spirit inspired resolutions to guide us on our path of improvement. We should also have goals to serve as markers along the way and a plan to carry it out.

So, the question now is, “What are you going to do about it?” Talk is cheap. Good intentions are nothing more than good intentions – they don’t add up to anything if you don’t actually do something about it. As Solomon wrote in Proverbs 14:23, endless talk accomplishes nothing.

I have told you before about one of my favorite self-help books, “The Traveler’s Gift” by Andy Andrews. It’s a fictional story but it is also based upon solid truth about human nature and about achieving success in life. It leads the reader to make seven key decisions that will change the course of your life. The third of those seven decisions pertains to being a person of action – someone who acts instead of just talks. My personal rendering of that third decision reads like this, “I am a man of action. I will take the action necessary to make my life better.”

And since I do want that to be true of me, this will be the last daily devotional in this series, and the last for this month, because one of my resolutions for 2025 is to take four short personal retreats – one each in the winter, spring, summer, and fall. My purpose is to get alone with God and my journal so I can better assess what God has been doing in my life over the past year, what I have learned from that and how it has changed me, where I’m at now, and what God may have planned for the immediate and long-term future for me. I will also consider what changes or adjustments I should be in the process of making.

My retreat in the winter will be this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I will be going up to the Smoky Mountains for some cold-weather hiking and lots of quiet time alone with the Lord. This is how I will fulfill this portion of that resolution. Therefore, the next devotional you will receive from me will be on Monday February 3^rd. At that time, we will begin a new study on a new theme.

In the meantime, with respect to your own resolutions, I encourage you to be a person of action. Challenge yourself with the question, “What am I going to do about it?”

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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