New Year 2018: To Live Less for Self-Interest and More for God's Interest

Wishing you a meaningful, happy New Year and that your soul would prosper as well as your life in general in 2018 and that we will all know God's perfect will for our lives.

I never really got very excited about the New Year in the past. But the more I think about it, there is hope for new possibilities and also this reminds me that I am closer to experiencing eternity with God at the next level, something to be happy about.

God is good all the time. I'm glad that God's perfect nature never changes.

It's interesting that C.S. Lewis' quote on timelessness is from his book, The Four Loves (chapter on Charity), written mainly about on God's love that never changes:

"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date."

If you look at the context of this quote, C.S. Lewis emphasized a few other ideas, including that we as Christians find perfect rest in Christ:

"Thou has made us for thyself," said St. Augustine, "and our heart has no rest till it comes to Thee."

C.S. Lewis also offered that an attitude of thankfulness, not an attitude of self-seeking in God, is most to be desired and is a type of gift of grace from God's nature:

'"Is it easy to love God?" asks an old author. "It is easy," he replies, "to those who do it." I have included two Graces under the word Charity. But God can give a third. He can awake in man, towards Himself, a supernatural Appreciative love. This is of all gifts the most to be desired. Here, not in our natural loves, nor even in our ethics, lies the true center of all human and angelic life. With this all things are possible."

To be like God by loving others unconditionally, even while sharing the truth, is a good goal. To be thankful for all things is another one. Jesus emphasized the importance of being thankful to God and suggested that our Appreciative love pleases God and gives glory to God (Luke 17:11-19). And Jesus expressed the thankfulness of his life as well. At least five times in the Gospels Jesus gave thanks to the Father in prayer.

Thankfulness is something that we can both feel and express and communicate back to God. With a habit of expressing thanks, we can more easily feel the feeling of thankfulness and gratitude. It's not easy to be self-seeking and giving thanks at the same time. Since God already knows our needs before we ask anyway, it would make more sense to aim for a life of more thankfulness rather than a life of increased self-interest.

Why not desire to live less for self-interest and more for God's interest in both living in and demonstrating God's nature? And we can get off on the right foot for the New Year by being filled with the Holy Spirit and by walking in the Spirit throughout the year:

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do." (Galatians 5:16-17)

May the New Year bring new inspiration to live with God and to walk with God!