Christian Living

Resolutions Or Dissolutions, Your Choice

by Charles (Chuck) Robey
12/24/19
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PROLOGUE

Have you listed your  New Year's resolutions.  ? What are you waiting for ?

  "What sort of New Year’s resolution should a Christian make?" (Excerpts from gotquestions.org)

"There is just something about the start of a new year that gives us the feeling of a fresh start and a new beginning. In reality, there is no difference between December 31 and January 1. Nothing mystical occurs at midnight on December 31. The Bible does not speak for or against the concept of New Year’s resolutions. However, if a Christian determines to make a New Year’s resolution, what kind of resolution should he or she make?

Common New Year’s resolutions are commitments to quit smoking, to stop drinking, to manage money more wisely, and to spend more time with family. By far, the most common New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, in conjunction with exercising more and eating more healthily. These are all good goals to set. However, 1 Timothy 4:8 instructs us to keep exercise in perspective: “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” The vast majority of New Year’s resolutions, even among Christians, are in relation to physical things. This should not be.

Many Christians make New Year’s resolutions to pray more, to read the Bible every day, and to attend church more regularly. These are fantastic goals. However, these New Year’s resolutions fail just as often as the non-spiritual resolutions, because there is no power in a New Year’s resolution. Resolving to start or stop doing a certain activity has no value unless you have the proper motivation for stopping or starting that activity. For example, why do you want to read the Bible every day? Is it to honor God and grow spiritually, or is it because you have just heard that it is a good thing to do? Why do you want to lose weight? Is it to honor God with your body, or is it for vanity, to honor yourself? (Philippians 4:13)

So, what sort of New Year’s resolution should a Christian make? Here are some suggestions: (1) pray to the Lord for wisdom (James 1:5) regarding what resolutions, if any, He would have you make; (2) pray for wisdom as to how to fulfill the goals God gives you; (3) rely on God’s strength to help you; (4) find an accountability partner who will help you and encourage you; (5) don’t become discouraged with occasional failures; instead, allow them to motivate you further; (6) don’t become proud or vain, but give God the glory. Psalm 37:5-6 says, “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.”

Thus, this News Years blog entitled " Resolutions Or Dissolutions, Your Choice".

It's that time of the year again. It just seems like yesterday that we were approaching 2019 and making those yearly resolutions. Time sure flies. Like the old parson would say, "I guess time flies, because we are always trying to kill it."

Anyway, time for those infamous "New Year's resolutions," or should we label them as "New Years Dissolutions," considering those resolves will probably fall by the wayside, or into the corner waste bucket. Yes, this annual ceremony is usually doomed before it actually begins.

According to one study conducted ,  25% of New Year’s resolutions are broken in the first week alone. Within six months, over half of us will have given up.

So, what will you resolve to give up? You know the list: lose weight and get in shape, quit smoking, learn a new hobby, read a good book and improve the mind, eat healthier, get out of debt, spend more time with family, travel to new places, be less stressful, do some volunteer work and the list goes on-and-on.

According to ancient history, New Year's Resolutions actually began in pre-Christian times, beginning with the Babylonians in March but changed to January by the Romans. Strangely enough, January gets its name from Janus, the two-faced god who looks backwards into the old year and forward into the new. Can we draw a parallel here, between this old mythology and our New Year's resolutions? Do we attempt to improve on the new year by looking back over last year's experiences? Or do we just create new ones, in hopes of successfully forgetting last year?

Puritans urged their children to spend their time reflecting on the year past and positively looking forward to the year to come. In this way, they adopted again the old custom of making resolutions. These were enumerated as commitments to better employ their talents, treat their neighbors with charity, and avoid their habitual sins

Jonathan Edwards had the right psychology. He took the writing of resolutions to an art form. He did not write his resolutions hurriedly. Rather, during a two-year period when he was about 19 or 20 following his graduation from Yale, he compiled some 70 resolutions on various aspects of his life, which he committed to reviewing each week.

Here are just three:

· Resolved, in narrations never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.

· Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it.

· Resolved, always to do what I can towards making, maintaining and establishing peace,  when it can be without over-balancing detriment in other respects.

I realize we can't take on the personality of these true patriarchs, as we all have our own identity. However, we can all learn from their experiences and start the new year as a blank slate. We can look at it as a time to take stock of our lives and focus on improving our condition, whether or not we jot down our anticipated improvements in the form of resolutions.

So, why do so many New Year's resolutions fall by the wayside? Could it be that we Americans are already hard-pressed just keeping up with today's hurry-up and wait schedule? After all we are already pressed for time. If you don't believe it, just slow down on any given main thoroughfare, some work morning, and listen to the variety of well tuned vehicle horns. You see, we just don't have time to squeeze new commitments into our 24-hour plus days, much less at the beginning of a new year.

The answer isn't just to make new resolutions, but to sharpen those positive priorities already in place, and give up on the lesser important projects. One need only surf the Internet to get any number of self-help suggestions. However, any resolution must be a personal endeavor, a chance to take your own ideas of a fuller life and build on them. If you fail in any aspect of a resolution, don't give up on it entirely. Take what's left and build on it. Remember, broken resolutions can definitely be repaired, and resolutions not mended will forever remain broken. It's up to you and you alone, my friend. Happy New Year!

EPILOGUE

I trust you enjoyed this little blog. Have you now decided ? Want to share your New Years resolutions ?

New Year's   Resolutions are not for me, one might say, out of pure disgust at not keeping these promises in the past. Now, why is it common knowledge that these annual promises are always broken?  

Could it be that the resolutions weren't realistic, or we had no plans of reaching them? According to Scripture patterns, we fail to keep these promises because we try to accomplish the results on our own willpower, instead of asking for God's help. (Psalm 121:2) 

Laying those traditional resolutions aside, why not begin the year by talking with God, and asking Him to show you what He wants you to do in your life? After all, our heavenly Father is patiently waiting for our call as He walks to talk with us. (Psalm 27:8) With the help of God's Holy Spirit we can pursue all the attributes of (I Timothy 6:11).  Amen!

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