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TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37

Read: Matthew 22:35-40
Listen: Matthew 22

TODAY’S MESSAGE

The Bible is filled with significant decisions people face. These moments pop up repeatedly because big decisions permeate human life. God tells Noah to build a boat and asks Abraham to leave home. David chooses to fight Goliath. Nehemiah prays about Jerusalem’s plight and takes action. Jesus invites disciples to follow him. Paul meets Jesus on the road. Following God involves many moments of choosing to obey and follow him. But the Bible also captures moments of failure. Adam and Eve question God’s goodness. The Israelites grumble in the wilderness. Saul disobeys God. Judas betrays Jesus. Failure doesn’t have to be final, but rebelling against God’s plan is costly. Obedience is the better way.

As we start 2024, we have a decision to make. We can choose to take our faith seriously this year. We can resolve to be obedient and follow God. We can take Jesus’s statement about the greatest commandment to love God and others to heart. Or we can do our own thing. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus’s death on the cross paid for our sins. It means we don’t have to be defined by our past failures. We can choose to follow him into the life he has for us. For the next two weeks, we will look at what it means to resolve to follow God. We will examine what a firm determination to follow Jesus in 2024 can look like.

TODAY: Resolve to follow Jesus in 2024. Commit to loving God with all your heart, soul and mind. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to follow through on your commitment. “God, as I enter 2024, I desire to love you with all that I am and extend your love to others. Please show me where I need to grow in my resolve to follow and obey you through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:

Read Luke 1. Highlight anything that refers to the Old Testament and how Jesus fulfills it. Look for direct quotations or themes that sound familiar. Use the cross-references in your Bible to help find connections to the Old Testament. A study Bible with notes will also point out places the author refers back to the Old Testament that aren’t as clear (like an allusion rather than a direct quotation).

Download a printable PDF of the BTW week here.