A New Year Of ChangeSample

DEFINING YOURSELF. Do you feel like you have found yourself? What’s the ultimate meaning for your life? Why do you exist? One of the most common ways we seek to find ourselves is through achievement and success. We live in a very driven culture. And it is passed down to our teenagers from their parents that drive to succeed; yet tremendous achievement can still result in restlessness. Another way that people seek to find themselves is through education and knowledge, and there’s no doubt that education and knowledge can enrich our understanding of life. But even with incredible academic success, you can still feel you are missing the ultimate answers to life. And then there is work. Many of us understand what it’s like to have the pressures of work and how all consuming it can become. Oftentimes, we let our work, our “professions,” define us, yet in the end, we struggle with emptiness within. Still others seek to find themselves through relationships. Of course, meaningful relationships are a key to meaningful life, but if we only have these relationships with people and leave out God, we still feel something is missing. And it is. That is why so many married blame their lack of fulfillment on their spouse – looking for them to fulfill the void only God can fill. Jesus tells us that beginning a relationship with God through Himself, through the person of Jesus Christ, is the most fulfilling relationship we can ever have. Only in <i>that relationship</i> will we find inner peace, answers, and fulfillment. Good news – this relationship is offered to anyone when you follow Jesus!