Everyday Resolutions

Happy New Year! Did you make any New Year's resolutions?

The question people frequently find themselves being asked has a wide range of answers. For some, the answer is, "No, I didn't want to disappoint myself." More often, however, most everyone has at least one thing every January 1st that they would like to change about themselves. One might hope to lose a certain amount of weight or earn a certain amount of money, or acquire some other item of monetary or sentimental value. Perhaps one would like to make a certain amount of friends or go to a certain event, or do something that they could only do once in a lifetime.

Whoever you are, you more than likely have something you don't like about yourself, and you want to fix it. So you write it down on January 1st, and depending on how much you really want it, work at it until you cross it off your list. Or perhaps you made a list, but you just never got around to actually doing it. That is often the case. So why do we do this? Well, most people explain it by saying that it's a new year, and thus it is a new start: a clean slate, if you will. "We've revolved around the sun one more time than we had 365 days ago. Time to start over!"

What's the point? If you have to reset yourself every 365 days, it seems to me that all the days before that didn't count for anything. If you changed for the better in 2013, why would you want to regress so you could 'start over' in 2014. Why not just work with what you have? And if that's the case, why do you have to wait 365 days between?

For those of us who are believers, we have to understand that salvation isn't a one-and-done thing. When we're born again, it's just like that. We're like infants and we need to grow. That's what sanctification is. It's the constant process of becoming more like Christ. One keyword there is 'constant.' You don't wake up one day sanctified. You don't die sanctified. It's a process that you go through every moment from the instant you receive the Holy Spirit. That's the way our 'resolutions' should be. You should wake up every day and ask God to change you today, and to make you more like Jesus.

It's great to write your goals down. I have my own New Year's resolutions, and I would encourage you to have at least one, because no one here is perfect. For that very reason, we should not be content to stay the way we are. God is I Am. He never changes; He is eternal and constant. We are not I Am. We are constantly changing in our lives, and we should make it our goal to strive for sanctification. Don't settle for complacency at any point in your life.

You should also keep in mind that you're not ever going to be able to 'fix' yourself. But the Holy Spirit is constantly at work in your life, and as you grow in your faith you should, and will see change in your life. So every day should be a resolution. Remember to do everything you do for the glory of God, and every day you should keep pressing on toward the goal.

Once more, happy New Year!



^"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 3:7-14