As this year is still very new, you may be looking back at your past and contemplating your future. You may be the type that says, “I don’t ‘do’ resolutions.” Perhaps it is silly to suddenly jump into healthier habits and aim for higher heights just because the calendar indicates that the new day is a new year, but there is biblical precedence for continual striving to do and be better.
Paul writes Thessalonica and twice urges them to “excel still more” (1 Thess. 4:1,10). Reading the text reveals that this more excellent approach includes proper walking and pleasing God (1). It includes practicing brotherly love (9). It includes sexual self-control and purity (3-7). It is attached to such behaviors as industriousness and evangelistic example (11-12). So, it takes in a wide variety of conduct that makes us better personally, morally, evangelistically, and ethically.
When you examine yourself this time next year, should the Lord allow time to stand, will you be living more excellently than you are today? If not, does that thought satisfy you? Don’t wait for January first, but don’t delay for any reason. Get started today on becoming a better you. This will benefit yourself, those around you, and the kingdom of God! Who needs more incentive than that?
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