We are a few weeks into the new year! Lots of people made resolutions and statistically about 80% of all resolutions made on the first will be broken or abandoned within a month. In fact, there is a growing trend to make micro resolutions. Small, easily achieved goals, or a series of goals, so that people are more likely to reach them.

I've been thinking about Luke 10:27 a fair amount recently and thought "What if we made this our new year's resolution? What if we made it our goal to love the lord with all our hearts, soul, minds, and strength and love our neighbors.

The first part is about loving God. More importantly it is about loving God with everything we have. Holding nothing back from Him. That doesn't mean we can't love anything else. It means we love God first and make Him the most important thing in our lives. Everything else must come second. This might seem harsh, but by loving God with everything we have, we are able to truly love others better. Because without God as our priority, we can't know true love.

The second part is about loving others. Once we have given God everything we can, we are more likely to see others as God sees them, as His creation. This doesn't necessarily mean we have to like everyone, but that we respect others. That we show compassion for others. Realizing that God loves them as much as He loves you, and that Jesus died for them just as He did for you. Even those we don't like because they think or believe something different then us. When we realize this, we start to see them as people and not labels that we place on them. We start to see them as people with issues and problems, just like us.

Just imagine how different the world could be if all those who call themselves Christians were to make this their goal for this year

Pastor Ryan Canaday