A new year is before us and it is time to evaluate what we have accomplished in 2014 and decide what we need to pursue and/or change in 2015.
My plan is to let go of those things that have infringed on time spent with God. I want to screen proposed projects by whether or not they can be done by using what God has given me to steward – my time, material possessions, talents given at birth, skills learned (or learning) and spiritual gifts. But my major emphasis is going to be on how I do projects.
For some time I have been meditating on I Corinthians 13 which states that unless we use our spiritual gifts in love we will become a noisy gong or clanging symbol and it profits us nothing. So, not wanting to be irritating but encouraging and not wanting to waste my time, I want love to be the motivating force in all that I do. This is no easy assignment!
I use the word “assignment” because it has become just that. When God repeats something over and over to me I usually get His message, “Do this.” After deciding to work on living to love I was surprised to sit through two sermons on the subject.
What I needed first was a working definition of “love”. According to The Discovery Bible put out by Moody Press, “love” is defined as “…an unselfish, outgoing affection or tenderness for another without necessarily expecting anything in return. It seeks a person’s highest good on the basis of the decision of will …”.
Immediately, as a test, I was faced with a situation in which it was hard to love. Because of God’s grace, I had noticed in one of the sermons the phrase, “…for love is from God,”. (I John 4:7) So I submitted myself to God by admitting my lack of love and asking for His. I know that I received it because once out of the problem situation I realized that I had not had one negative thought or feeling.
Here is another definition of “love” which I will use this year. It was taught by Pastor Dean Grotzke at First Baptist of Windsor, CA, some time ago. “Love is … an attitude and action toward God and others. (It) gives true value to all we say and do – how and what we say, how we minister our gifts and how we sacrifice ourselves for others.”
I’m looking forward to practicing and learning more about love in this New Year.
What about you? What inward change does God want you to work on this year? Do you have a working definition of it? And what do you already know about it?

Being a dog lover, I took literally the phrase, “Love me, love my dog”. But, come to find out, I was wrong. So says Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson. “What the phrase means is ‘if you want to love me, you’ll have to take me faults and all.’” It sounds similar to what God says about our loving others.