As we close out 2007, many will certainly be saying “good riddance!” to it. As someone once said, “Life is hard, and then you die.” As we recently heard in our Disaster Response training, the mortality rate still hovers somewhere around 100 percent, so basically we are all terminally ill. It is true that life is hard for everyone, but what are the alternatives?

    I’m not trying to end this year on the most depressing note I can think of, but what I am talking about should not be depressing. It is not that we have to die, but we get to! Death is not the end of the matter for Christians, but the glorious graduation for which we have all been working so hard. However, if you are reading this, you are still here. You have not graduated yet, so let’s enjoy the ride. Life is good. Yes it is hard, but it is good.

    I am praying for this coming year to be the best year of our lives. So if it is to be the best year of our lives, what would define that?

    Would we be at peace with all of our relationships?

    Would we be delivered from financial problems or grow in the resources we are entrusted with?

    Would we be healed or have our loved ones healed?

    Would we come to know our purpose?

    I’m sure we could all add greatly to this list, but there is one thing that is the answer to every human problem and every human desire. Jesus Christ is the answer to every human problem. He can fix anything, and He will if we go to Him. Even better than fixing things, He will fix us.

    The ultimate success of a human life is determined by whether we did the will of God or not. His ultimate will, and our ultimate job description as human beings, is to love Him first, above all things. So the first and primary way that we can determine if last year was a successful one is to ask ourselves if we love Him more now than we did at the beginning of the year. Is He truly our first and greatest love?

    As we are told in I Corinthians13:8, “love never fails.” If we are growing in love, we are growing in the ability to never fail. Think about that. On that great judgment day our lives are going to be measured by how much we loved God first, and then one another. It is okay to love other things too, appreciating the good gifts that our Father has given to us. However, things needs to be at the bottom of the list, and people next, and then God as our first priority.

    One of the reasons why I think we are commanded to love God above all things is because He knows that if we do not keep Him first in our lives we will not be able to love anyone or anything else the way that we should. God is the most lovable Being in the universe, and the most loving. To not love Him above all things is to be deluded, deceived, and to not see Him as He is.

    As a minister in God’s household, I have been praying for the anointing to be able to help raise up the strongest, most faithful, and most powerful Christians who really are like Christ and do the works that He did. I grieve over some of the glaring weaknesses of the church in our time, and I know much of it is due to very weak foundations, especially in sound doctrine. However, I also know that even if we have the Bible memorized, know all mysteries, and have faith to move mountains, but do not have love, we are failures according to I Corinthians 13. It won’t count unless we have love!

    The greatest weakness of all in the church is a lack of love—first for God and then for one another. Therefore, the thing that is needed most is love for God and then for one another. What are we doing to grow in love and to impart a vision and desire for this in others? The greatest, most important anointing any ministry can have is the anointing to impart a love for God, a desire for getting closer to Him, and then a love for one another.

    We can know the Bible, be the strongest in sound doctrines, and the best in apologetics, but we will fall away when the fire comes if we do not have love. We can know everything about God, but will still retreat before the enemies of the cross if we do not love Him. You can know intellectually that it is better for you not to cheat on your spouse, your family, your God, but you will do it in a trial if you do not love your spouse, your family, and God. Knowing the Word of God is very important, but it alone will not keep us. We must love God.

    So, how successful were we as human beings this past year? Are we closer to God than when the year began? Do we love Him more? Do we know Him better? What are we going to do to become better human beings this coming year? How are we going to fulfill our main purpose to love God above all things? How are we going to get closer to Him? How are we going to get to know Him better?
 

    I am convinced that the theme of the kingdom is inexhaustible, and we will continue it into next year, but our main thrust will be to know the King and follow Him more closely, becoming more and more like Him and doing the works that He did.

    The main way that we prepare the way for the kingdom is to grow up in all aspects into the King (see Ephesians 4:15), which will, as the next verse in Ephesians 4 states, cause us to grow together into His body, which will result in the proper functioning of each individual part. Therefore, the most visible sign of the coming of His kingdom is His body coming together and functioning like the glorious body of Christ we are called to be. Even so, that is the fruit of being joined rightly to Him, which always must be our primary devotion in this life, and will be the primary thing that determines if we will hear those greatest of words on the great judgment day—“Well done, good and faithful slave . . . enter into the joy of your master” (see Matthew 25:21).