The Year of Jesus

There's something powerful about the turning of a calendar year. Fresh starts. New possibilities. Clean slates. But what if this year wasn't just about making resolutions that fade by February? What if this became the year we truly let Jesus transform us from the inside out?

Consider this remarkable fact: from the time Jesus officially appointed his twelve disciples to his resurrection, only about 24 months passed. In that brief window, ordinary fishermen and tax collectors became public speakers, miracle workers, and founders of the largest movement in human history. Three of them contributed to the best-selling book of all time.
Twenty-four months. That's all it took.

So what could Jesus do in you in just twelve months?

A Different Kind of Past
The apostle Paul gives us a roadmap in Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Notice the verb tenses Paul uses. "Have been crucified" - that's past tense. "Lives in me" - that's present. "Loved me and gave himself" - past again. Paul is teaching us something profound: what happened in our past makes our present different, and what happened in His past makes us trust Him daily.

We all carry pasts. Some of us were told we weren't smart enough, weren't good enough, wouldn't amount to much. Maybe you experienced abuse or abandonment. Those painful experiences echo into our present, causing us to live less-than lives.

But here's the beautiful truth: God's greater-than past can overcome your less-than past. This is the year we stop letting the painful things behind us define us, and start letting what Jesus did on the cross shape our present reality. His mercies are new every morning. His power, provision, and purposes for you are fresh today, tomorrow, and every day this year.

Your Body Matters to God
Paul says he lives "in the body." That's not an accident. Your physical body matters to God because it's where His Spirit now dwells. The Old Testament temple where God's presence resided? That curtain was torn open at Jesus' crucifixion, and now God lives in you.
This means what you put in your mouth matters. How much or little you exercise matters. Not because God is a cosmic killjoy, but because He lives in you and wants you to honor Him with this physical life He's given you.

The goal isn't perfection or achieving some magazine-cover physique. Some of us have infirmities and challenges that others don't face. But for most of us, there's something we could do to better steward these bodies God has given us. Maybe it's losing a few pounds - even just half a pound a month adds up to six pounds in a year. Maybe it's exercising a few days a week. Maybe it's finally addressing that health issue you've been ignoring.
The better we care for our bodies, the more we honor the God who dwells within them.

The Battle for Your Mind
Living by faith means trusting what God says rather than what the world screams at us. And make no mistake - the world is screaming. Through mass media, social media, video games, streaming services, and endless digital distractions, it's possible to never think a single unique thought in an entire day. We can simply move from consuming one thing to the next, letting others fill our minds with their messages.

But here's a principle worth writing down: what you think about is what you eventually become.

Think about good things, you become good. Think about helping people, you become a helper. Think like a video game character in traffic, and you'll want to blow up the cars around you. Think like Jesus, and you'll want the best for those other drivers.
Your mind doesn't naturally gravitate toward true, noble, and pure thoughts. It's easier to fixate on what bugs us or what's going wrong. That's why we need to intentionally feed our minds on Scripture, gather with other believers, and take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.

Your mind is a weapon - God says so Himself. You can use it to fight depression, battle lies, destroy confusion, and kill false motives. But like any weapon, it must be wielded intentionally.

The Money Question
Jesus taught that it's impossible to serve both God and money. He wasn't being dramatic - He was stating reality. Money has a way of becoming our master when we think it's just our tool.

We need money for food, shelter, clothing, bills. So we work for money. And when we need more than we have, we borrow. Suddenly we're not working to earn money for ourselves - we're working to pay back creditors. Instead of money working for us, we end up working for money.

This is why the tithe matters so profoundly. When God asks us to bring Him the first ten percent of what we earn, He's not trying to fund His budget - He's training our hearts. When we spend the first of our money on ourselves, we become our first priority. When we bring the first of our money to the Lord, He becomes first.

It takes faith to tithe. You have to believe that God is a better provider for you than you can be for yourself. But God promises that when we honor Him with our firstfruits, He'll open the floodgates of blessing.

The fundamental truth about money is this: it's God's money. Everything we see belongs to Him - He made it all. We're not owners; we're managers. And good managers know where the owner's assets are going.

This Is His Year
From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture reveals Jesus as the Messiah and King, the Obedient Servant, the Perfect Son of Man, the Son of God, the Resurrected Savior. He's the Wisdom of God, the God of All Comfort, the Freedom Bringer, the Grace-Saver. He's the One who emptied Himself on our behalf, the Mediator, the Abolisher of Death, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. He's the Living Hope, the Word of Life, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

This is His year. Not because the calendar says so, but because you've decided to make it so. This is the year you let Jesus be your Lord, your power, your hope, your strength, and your shield.

So what can happen in twelve months? If Jesus could transform fishermen into apostles in twenty-four months, imagine what He can do in you in twelve. The question isn't what Jesus is capable of - it's how fully you're willing to let Him work.

This is the year of Jesus. Make it count.