A New Year has arrived! I hope we will all have some significant changes for the good. Change seems inevitable, but we can count on the fact that God is still God and remains unchanged.About this time of year, most of us think about what we need to change or improve. We should remember that old saying, “Good, Better, Best; never let it rest until the Good is Better and the Better is the Best!”Paul suggests some areas for betterment in Philippians 1:9-11, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”So following Paul’s advice, may we all endeavor to have several improvements. First, may we have better love for one another. He prayed for love to grow. While love involves our feelings and emotions, the love he is referring to is commitment. Commitment to each other; when we value what is best for the other person. This love is intelligent good will, active benevolence, and deliberate kindness.Then second he prayed for better discernment. Discernment is what most people would call ‘good judgment. It is the ability to see the difference between things, and to choose the best and wisest. It is prudence, wisdom, seeing life and its choices from God’s perspective.Not all of our choices are between good and evil; many choices are between good and better and best. We just don’t know which way to go sometimes. So we must rely on God’s Word to discover what is important and lasting and wise and right—what is best!It seems that much of the world has lost the distinction between right and wrong, and especially between good, better, and best. Godly discernment enables us to exercise godly discrimination to see what is the best course. So we must ask some critical questions: Does it agree with God’s Word? Does it glorify God? Does it cause me to disobey God? Does it compromise my faith and convictions?Then the third improvement we need to seek in this year is to have priorities that are in agreement with God’s will. Our priorities should always include Gods priorities. So we must ask:
