New Year’s Resolutions

“He who swears to his own hurt and does not change.” New King James Version 15: 4

“He keeps his word even to his own disadvantage and does not change it [for his own benefit].” Amplified Bible Psalm 15: 4

Making a New Year’s resolution is a good thing, but only if the resolution is a worthy one and the one making it is a resolute person, one determined, unwavering. Otherwise it is only hot air in a balloon soon to be deflated.

The top 10 New Year resolutions list is as follows:  
1.     Lose weight 
2.    Exercise
3.    Quit smoking
4.    Quit drinking
5.    Be a better person
6.    Spend more time with family
7.    Spend less time on the internet
8.    Be more organized
9.    Get out of debt
10.  Be more spiritual

Regarding number one this story is indicative. A woman saw her husband weighing himself on the bathroom scales, sucking in his stomach. She said to her husband, “That’s not going to help.” To which her husband replied, “Sure it will. It’s the only way I can see the numbers.”

In thinking of the new year we tend to forget about the old one. In the old one did you make any personal changes for the better? Not to be morbid, but realistically it has brought us one year closer to when time will run out on us and we will face the ultimate assessment of life before the Lord. With that applied to the new year, now is a very good time to resolve to live in such a way as to be better prepared for that inevitable eventuality. With that in mind, plan your new resolutions.

All the list of good things resolved and fulfilled will not prepare us for that great assize. The resolution that will condition us for that day is faith in Jesus. Two options are available for that.

One is for those who have never resolutely accepted His forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. It is both an act and a process. It is an act in that it occurs in an instance and a process in that it has a life long transforming process.

The other is for those who have done so previously, but need to renew their devotion to Him. It is number 10 on the list of resolutions. Make it number one.

Following is a worthy resolution. “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the

prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)