An effective resolution

How to NOT kick off the New Year

New Year’s resolutions – I hate them. Not any specific resolution a person has made, but rather the idea of them, the tradition of making a resolution every year on January 1st that is either altered or abandoned all-together somewhere around February 1st.

Why do I hate the practice? As a follower of Jesus, one who believes that it is the Lord who is at work in Christians, both to will and to do work, all for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13), the New Year’s resolution feels like a teaspoon of works-righteousness, a pinch of legalism, and three whole cups of word-of-faith “the power lies within me” pseudo-prosperity gospel thinking (a mouthful, I know).

The New Year’s resolution seems like something that originated in a self-help book. It has at its centre the belief that both the will and the ability to make yourself better and make your life all that it can be lie within you and you alone. If you think it, believe it, and say it, you can do it. That, friends, is New Age spirituality, and it has nothing to do with the Gospel or following Jesus.

Obedience, not witchcraft

So, what makes the difference? What is the foundation, as believers, for walking in obedience and seeing growth in our lives? After all, right before Paul says what he does in Philippians 2:13, he writes in verse 12 that we are to, “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” How do we live in such a way as to please God, grow in holiness and joy, and yet not get caught in the trap of doing it in our own power with us as the source of the change?

“Blessed is the man who… delights is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” – Psalm 1:1a, 2-3

Spurgeon said it this way: “Your life cannot be sustained without renewal from God. Just as it is essential to replace the body’s energy by eating, the soul must be revitalized by feeding on the book of God… How poor and malnourished are the saints who live without the diligent use of the Word of God.”

People of the Book

If you truly want to experience fullness of joy this year, and taste the ripest blessings from the Owner of the vineyard, make only one resolution, and plead with the Holy Spirit to grant you both the desire and the ability to keep it – feast regularly and intentionally on the Word of God. It is through the life-changing power of the living and active Word that our souls are exposed, our sins are called out, and our flesh is put to death day by day. This, I would remind you, is a work actively and entirely done by the Lord; we are merely passive agents who must submit and obey.

“Speak, O Lord, as we come to You, to receive the food of Your holy Word. Take Your truth, plant it deep in us; shape and fashion us in Your likeness. That the light of Christ might be seen today, in our acts of love and our deeds of faith. Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us, all Your purposes for Your glory.” – “Speak, O Lord”, Keith Getty and Stuart Townend

The power is not in you, the power is in the Word. The desire and the ability do not come from you, they come from the Holy Spirit as He is active in the Word. By God’s grace, may this be a year marked by the regular and intentional reading of God’s Word, of hiding that Word deep in your soul, and of significant Christ-centered life-change.

Post Script

If you are looking for different options to read through all or part of the Scriptures this coming year, click here. You will find entire Bible reading plans, New Testament only reading plans, and two-year and three-year Bible reading plans. Be honest about what you can and cannot commit to, find people to join you and hold you accountable, and don’t quit!