New Year's Resolutions: The Usual Flop

The New Year rolls around and all of a sudden everyone wants to make a New Year’s resolution. A resolution is defined as “the act of determining.” So, why is it that so many New Year’s resolutions fail? Give these resolutions a couple of weeks and they have fallen by the wayside.

Well, human strength is frail when it is not coupled with God’s strength. 1 Corinthians 1:25 takes an interesting perspective on just how weak man is without God, “the weakness of God is stronger than men.” Human strength at its best is nothing compared to God’s strength and power. It’s really no wonder a resolution made solely on human strength and resolve will not last.

So, before you run out and buy that new piece of exercise equipment, let’s take a look at what God wants from us in terms of a commitment with Him. “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” Hebrews 12: 1-2.

God has a beautiful and perfect plan for our lives. It is plotted out like the race Paul describes in Hebrews. There will be times we struggle running uphill and times when we coast along running downhill. We are protected as long as we stay on the track God has laid out. Veering off is foolish and dangerous. (Most of us have learned that through experience by now!)

The wisest New Year’s resolution that could possibly be made is to recommit (or commit) ourselves to the plan God has for our lives. That resolution is not made solely out of human strength, but with the power God gives us because we are His child. Once we are in line with God’s path, all those other areas in our lives we needed to make a resolution about will be dealt with along the way in God’s timing.

New Year’s Day is not any more special than every other day God gives us. Each day is His creation and we don’t have to wait for New Year’s Day to commit to Him. That shows just how much God wants to love, lead, and bless us, because the door is always open with Him.