As we enter the first week of the new year, many of us are considering resolutions. From weight loss and gym memberships to reading more, these standard promises are familiar to most. Perhaps you have made these commitments before with varying degrees of success. If a past goal remained unfulfilled, you might be redoubling your efforts or refining your strategy to ensure this year is different. However, for the believer, one essential commitment deserves to be renewed every single day.
While some resolutions fade, there is one resolution you should indeed repeat over and over again. It is the one thing you need this year as much as you did last—a foundational truth that you never outgrow or move beyond. Regardless of your other goals, your primary focus should remain clear.
Preach the gospel this year.
Preach it to yourself and preach it to others. Preach it to the Christian and non-Christian, to the one who has believed for decades and to the one that is still considering. Tell the old, old story of a Savior who came from glory, and gave His life on calvary to save a wretch like me. Do it again.
And when we’ve done it for a year, we turn around and do it again.
It’s for the child and the adult, for the student and the retiree. Preach the gospel both inside and outside yourself. Take these words from the Apostle Paul to heart at the first of this year:
“Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you—unless you believed for no purpose. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received” (1 Cor. 15:1–3).
Before Paul goes on to articulate the core tenets of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that which is indeed most important, notice a key word in verse 1:
Brothers.
These people were not pagans. These people were not outside the faith. These were brothers and sisters in the Lord, and yet Paul did the thing he did when they were still dead in their sin: He preached the gospel to them. That’s because, as he articulates, this is the message we have taken our stand on and are being saved by, right now. This is the message we need to hear in 2024 just like we did in 2023. This is what’s most important for our forgetful hearts and lethargic souls.
Make a resolution, then, but let it be a lasting one. Resolve to do the same thing you did yesterday and then to it again tomorrow. Preach the gospel over and over again until faith becomes sight.
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This article originally appeared on thinke.org and is reposted here by permission.