The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.

1 Timothy 1:5

Wow. December 31, 2020. Later today, people all around the world will make resolutions they will break within a few days or weeks. Some will want to get in shape, start a new hobby, learn a new language, start a new career – what would you add to the list?

What about spiritual resolutions? Do you plan to read the Bible through this year? Start every day with a time of communion with God? What if we all determined in our hearts to simply live authentic lives of faith in our everyday lives?

Jonathan Edwards wrote about this idea nearly three hundred years ago:

“Resolved, very much to exercise myself in this all my life long, with the greatest openness I am capable of, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to him: all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and everything, and every circumstance.”

It is no secret that God already is aware of the content of our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7, Luke 16:15). We can’t fool God and we really don’t fool others either.

The key is our response and I believe it can be discovered in the verse above. The kind of authentic love that is built on a pure and open heart before God and man. An honest heart produces a clear conscience. Likewise, a faith that is genuine reflects a heart that is surrendered.