January typically brings New Year's resolutions, a look back over the past year, and predictions of this year's emerging trends. Did you know the average new January gym membership typically lasts about two weeks? The most common resolutions for the new year are often self-focused: losing weight, or quitting a bad habit. The new year is a time to begin new and better habits. It can also be a time of fear as interest rates rise, the cost-of-living increases, and we wonder how we will make it through another year with possible new virus variants and travel disasters.

I have some good news for you as we begin this new year. Consistency matters! While the new year may be a time to choose healthy lifestyle choices, the consistency of a daily walk with Christ in this broken and continually breaking world matters most.

Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4). To abide is to endure without yielding, it is to remain and not be moved or fractured. To me, it speaks of weathering the storms of a changing culture and rising living costs without falling into fear and anxiety. One author noted that we are becoming an ever-increasingly angry culture and are becoming defined by our anger – look at all the “Karens and Kevins” out there on TikTok and other social media streams. Reel after reel of people going berserk and acting out in public has become a form of entertainment.

However, we are called to something more as Christ followers. We are called to consistency, to abiding, and enduring the changing times without losing our light as witnesses to something better. This new year will bring many challenges, as every new year does. However, consistently abiding in Jesus is the best way to weather the storms and allow our light to shine as witnesses of a greater hope. Interest rates may still rise, the cost of living may continue to increase, and people will still become angry and self-centred and lash out in public. Yet the message of the Gospel lived out consistently and verbally with others in love is the hope for our lost and confused world.

There is a reason new gym memberships typically last only a short time. It's not that people don't believe in the benefits of exercise, rather, they fail to abide, becoming enthralled with other things, and focusing on other priorities. The discipline of the gym gives way to the temptation of the newest and latest, well, you fill in the blank.

As believers, we are called to abide, not just for safety and protection, but so that we produce spiritual fruit. We abide by consistently being informed and transformed by the Word of God rather than social media. We abide when we are in communion with the Spirit and in community with other believers. We abide when we consistently walk in the Spirit as light in the darkness. So, as this new year 2023 begins, let us renew again a resolution to walk with Jesus, abiding in Him consistently!

Abide in HIM!

Rev. Bill Allan
AGC President

2023: Consistency Matters!