The New Year is just about here – a time to evaluate our lives and set goals. We all know that resolutions are a lot easier to make than to keep. But instead of offering tips on how to achieve the goals we set, I would like to go back a step and think about how we as Christians should evaluate our lives and choose our goals. Rather than being focused on our looks, our bank accounts or our climb to professional success, we should be focused on honoring God, worshiping Him and loving others as He tells us to. When we evaluate whether we have had a “good” year, we should be asking such questions as: “Did I take opportunities to help others in need? Did I live in a way that acknowledged and honored Jesus? Did I share the Gospel with non-believers? Did I encourage fellow Christians?” In fact, we don’t need to wait until the end of a year to ask these questions; these are the questions we should ask ourselves each day in evaluating our lives. A “good” day to a Christian can look quite different than a “good” day to the rest of the world because it shouldn’t depend on our circumstances so much as on how we responded to the opportunities we found to honor God in those circumstances.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. … But seek [your Father’s] kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.’ “ Luke 12: 22,23,31 NIV.

Your Turn: What are you doing to keep a God-centered perspective?