A “KISS” FOR THE NEW YEAR

For the past 24 years my husband and I have faithfully celebrated ringing in the New Year with a kiss at the stroke of midnight.  This year however, our family enjoyed attending the New Year’s Eve service at our church which was followed by games, food and fellowship. We had planned to head home around 10:30pm since we needed to stop and pick up a few items at the grocery store nearby.  Because our family was having such a wonderful time playing Scrabble and talking with friends, we didn’t end up leaving the church until a few minutes before the New Year was to begin.

My husband drove up to the door and I ran quickly into the store in hopes of arriving back to our car to kiss my husband at midnight.  For some reason there were a lot of people shopping for groceries at that time, making our wait in the checkout line extraordinarily long.  I kept checking the time but could not make it back to our car until 12:07 am.  I then kissed my husband 7 minutes later than our tradition had been for the past 24 years.  It was disappointing but hopefully next year we will have better timing.

I did feel slightly guilty that I had not been able to keep up our tradition but it did help me realize some of the changes I needed to make in the coming year.  As I began reflecting over 2013 and planning my “New Year’s” resolutions for 2014, the word “kiss” kept resurfacing in my mind.  My husband would definitely agree that he would like more kisses from me in the coming months but that’s not the kind of kisses I’m referring to.  Several years ago I recall hearing someone mention the acronym for “KISS” which is “Keep It Simple Sweetie”.  I believe that “KISS” should be at the very top of my resolution list for 2014 because I definitely need to work on keeping things more simple.

When we look at the Bible and how God handles things, the word “simple” comes to mind. After all,  God has made His message of salvation so simple that even a young child can understand it and be saved.  It is man and the philosophies and beliefs that humans have conjured up from the beginning of time that has blurred the simplicity of the gospel by adding good works to the equation.  Acts 16:31 tells us the requirement for salvation, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”   If the MOST important message ever given to all mankind is that simple, then maybe we need to reevaluate how complicated we tend to make our everyday lives.

So many times we find ourselves stressed out and overwhelmed by life that we often feel like giving up.  This is not the life that God has intended for His children at all.  God’s Word is very clear, simple and precise in how it teaches us to live a more abundant life.  God does not make a complicated difficult puzzle for us to figure out in order to live a life overflowing with blessings.  It is possible for us to enjoy better health, deeper more meaningful relationships, greater spiritual fulfillment and infinite joy and peace if we are willing to follow and obey the simple commands that He has lovingly written for us in His Word.   

Too often we get so wrapped up in the things of this world that we ourselves complicate our lives to the point where we are confused and feel defeated.  We see in I Corinthians 14:33 that “God is not the author of confusion.”  Confusion and stress comes from our Enemy whose goal is for us in 2014 is to concentrate on so many different things that we do not to accomplish much for God’s kingdom.  We often adapt the world’s belief system by believing the lie that we need to fill our schedules to overflowing with activity that may not even be God’s will for us to participate in.  Even if our time is filled with running here and there for “good” things, ALL of those activities may not be what God wants us to be accomplishing. I believe that the majority of people today glorify a busy jam packed life and we are missing out on many opportunities to make a greater impact for Christ with the time He gives us.

 We Americans tend to fill our houses to overflowing with earthly possessions that do not bring us happiness and joy but only cause us to spend more time cleaning, dusting and taking care of those material things.  Of course we must take care of what God has entrusted to us but if we hoard an overabundance of possessions that require extra time to tend to, those things can actually detour us from fulfilling God’s plans for us.  Do we really need to store five crock pots in our kitchen cupboards just in case we might need them all or could we give a few away to people who may need them and be blessed by our gift?   Learning how to keep things simple and focusing on the main goals and objectives God has for us to follow will allow Him to accomplish the impossible through us for His glory.

We also fill our minds with all kinds of entertainment that steal hours away from time we could be spending with our Creator.  Our prayer life suffers, our devotional time suffers and possibly even our church attendance is affected.  When we substitute communion and fellowship with our heavenly Father for various types of entertainment such as music, television, movies, books or social media we will most definitely experience a decline in our spiritual lives which is exactly what our Enemy has planned for us.  Our God given time is precious and the moments we spend on this earth are so fleeting.  The Bible talks about the brevity of our time in James 4:14, “For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”  The time we have each day does not really belong to us anyway for it is God who lends us each minute we enjoy for us to accomplish HIS purposes for creating us.  Every breath we take is His gift to allow us to fulfill His plan. 

I believe that our God would be honored and glorified greatly if each of His children would strive to simplify our lives and adapt the motto in 2014 of “Keeping it Simple.”  I have so many areas to work on in my life, but this year I am choosing to make things more simple which will free up more time for me to devote to my Savior and serving others.  My goal is to surrender more of my time, talents and treasure so that God can work the impossible in and through me.

WAYS TO FIND SIMPLICITY IN 2014:

1)      Going to God early each morning to seek direction and wisdom for God’s schedule for my day and for our future ministry.  This involves spending time in His Word, praying for the needs of my family, friends and even strangers and praising God for ALL of the AMAZING things He has done in my life.  When our day begins with God, everything else will fall into proper perspective.

2)      Guarding our family’s schedule and praying about extra activities and opportunities that arise.  We do not want to be filling our time with what we think we must be accomplishing that may not even be included in God’s schedule for us.  This personally includes limiting time I spend on various types of entertainment such as social media.

3)      Getting rid of some earthly possessions that are not necessary to me fulfilling God’s plan.  Being sensitive to God’s leading in giving away more material things in order to be a blessing to someone who needs it more than I do.  After all, what are the things I truly need?

Maybe you are like me and God has been pricking at your heart about your need to simplify your life?  Life is too short to be stressed out because we spend too much time taking care of too many possessions, whittling away our time on self entertainment that we could be ministering to someone or packing our day so full with unnecessary activity that we often long for a vacation.  My prayer for 2014 is that God will transform me and conform me more into the image of Jesus by learning to keep things more simple.  If we honor our Savior in all that we do and seek Him fully in everything, He will bless us richly and use us to accomplish more for Him.   Jesus sums up how we will be blessed by keeping life more simple in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and ALL these things will be added to you.”  If we follow God’s will and ways for our lives in 2014, He will accomplish “exceedingly abundantly above ALL that we ask or even think.”