CHRISTIAN NEW YEARS RESOLUTION
WORLDLY RESOLUTIONS
We are at the transition point between the end of one year and the beginning of a new year. What happened in the old year, good or bad, is done and we cannot change it; we simple must live with the results of the past. In living with the past, it is wise to capitalize on the positive and prudent to minimize the impact of the negative. In many ways that is what we call learning from the past; and one way we do that is to make up our mind that we will do better tomorrow. While it is true that we always have the opportunity to make changes in our life, somehow it just seems like the first of January is a good time to resolve to improve the way we do things; thus, New Year Resolutions are common. From a secular perspective, the top 10 most common New Year Resolutions for 2012 are:
1. Get More Fit
2. Lose Weight
3. Quit Smoking
4. Spend More Time with Family & Friends
5. Enjoy Life More
6. Fall in Love
7. Get Out of Debt
8. Learn Something New
9. Help Others
10. Get Organized
Perhaps we have even given consideration to one or more of these resolutions. In any advent, there will be many people who have resolved to improve their life by addressing one or more of these issues.
A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION IS NOT AN OATH
We must admit that any one of these worldly actions would probably be an improvement in our life. Yet, over the years I have heard more than one preacher condemns the practice of making New Year’s Resolutions. Most often the preacher will quote Matthew 5:33-37, where Jesus said: “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” When you take this statement out of context it almost seem that Jesus does not want us to swear to do something; making it easy for a preacher to twist this scripture into a doctrine of not making a New Year’s Resolution. But, if we put Matthew 5:33-37 back into the context of Jesus’ sermon on the mount we will see that Jesus is bringing to the people the spiritual concept of His New Covenant. Jesus would say: “You have heard that it was said,” and then He would explain how His teachings are a more perfect fulfillment of this Law. When Jesus taught about oaths He was telling the people that they should not put emphasis on ritualistic oaths, like the Pharisees; instead, simple do what you say you are going to do. In my opinion, if you are going to make a New Year’s Resolution Jesus would simple tell you to make that improvement.
Jesus knows that we humans often lack the power to fulfill, or sometimes even act on, our strongest desires and intentions. We compound the impact of our weakness when we turn our intentions into an oath, which we fail to keep. That is why we do not take a New Year’s Oath; at the beginning of a new year we determine (resolve) to make an improvement in our life. In fact, you might say: “I am resolved no longer to linger, Charmed by the world's delight.” Making a New Year’s Resolution to work on improving some aspect of our life is not the same thing as swearing an oath.
WHAT A CHRISTIAN RESOLUTION IS NOT
The words of the song ‘I am Resolved’ are very powerful and they certainly clearly define the objective every Christian should take in making a New Year’s Resolution. The song was originally written by James H. Fillmore, Sr. in 1896 and because it was so popular Fillmore asked Palmer Hartsough to rewrite the song for publishing. Perhaps it would be profitable for us to take the time to think about the opening line of that song: “I am resolved no longer to linger, Charmed by the world's delight; Things that are higher, things that are nobler, These have allured my sight.” Now compare this with what Paul wrote to the Romans: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,” (Romans 12:2). How could you possibly find evil in a person resolving to be transformed by the renewing of their mind, through the word of God. For a Christian, that is what a New Year’s Resolution should be all about.
A brief examination of the ten most common New Year’s Resolutions will reveal, however, that they do not all serve to set our minds on things that are higher or nobler. As a Christian, we need to remember that Jesus commanded us to be fruit bearing branches (John 15:1-17). And, Paul explained to the Galatians just exactly what fruit Jesus wants us to produce: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) The point is: it is better for us to resolve to improve our spiritual fruit than it is for us to improve earthly things. For example:
1. Get More Fit is self-focused;
2. Lose Weight is self-focused;
3. Quit Smoking is self-focused;
4. Spend More Time with Family & Friends is outward focused;
5. Enjoy Life More tends to be more self-focused;
6. Fall in Love is self-focused;
7. Get Out of Debt can be more self-focused;
8. Learn Something New depends on what you learn;
9. Help Others is outward focused; and
10. Get Organized is probably more self-focused.
It is obvious that the bulk of worldly New Year’s Resolutions are self-focused. Now, we certainly cannot say that it is wrong for us to want to improve ourselves, but we can say that self-focused endeavors should not be at the top of our list of resolutions.
THE BASIC CONCEPT OF A RESOLUTION
To start with, a resolution is the determination to carry out a specific course of action. In the case of a New Year’s Resolutions we are generally focused on making an improvement in our life, and for the Christian our top priority should be Christian improvements. Our improvement should not be some general statement such as: “I am going to read the bible more.” If we are going to truly make an improvement we need to establish a goal and then list objectives for reaching that goal. The best way to clarify our New Year’s Resolutions is to write them out.
Writing out your New Year’s Resolutions is a good way for you to focus your improvements and it is also a good way to get God involved. For example, you might make the resolution to become more biblically literate, which is your goal. To reach your goal you resolve to: study scripture, attend a bible study class and read at least two bible based books, these are our objectives. Each resolution should be written out with a statement of your goal, which contains two parts: a part that summarize your reason for making the resolution and a part that details how you will carry out your resolution. The second part will contain details concerning your objectives. You will find that writing a resolution is a great way to form a strong foundation for turning the resolution into reality.
There are five basic steps:
1. Prayerfully choose your resolutions – Our goal should one that helps us build a stronger relationship with Jesus and our objectives should be things that bring us closer to Jesus. It is important to make decisions based on our real need, as determined through prayer: asking God to show us our biggest needs.
2. Write out each resolution in two parts– there is little point in just making a list.
a. We should think about each resolution thoroughly, and then we should write why we need to make this resolution and what is our goal for this resolution. It is very beneficial if we will reference scripture that supports our need for this resolution. The more specific we get about why we need to make this resolution the easier it will be for us to stay focused on the resolution in the future.
b. Once we clearly know why we need to make this resolution we need to write out exactly what actions we will take. This clause should contain realistic objectives required for us to achieve our goal. It is especially helpful if we breakup our resolution into progressive steps (objectives) rather than trying to reach our goal in one giant leap. Again, reference scripture that will help you make the improvement.
3. Once we have our New Year’s Resolutions written out we need to review them, but not until we have set them aside for a few days. Once our mind is refreshed we need to carefully and prayerfully read our resolutions to determine if they address a real improvement, and if they are logical and realistic. Don’t hesitate to make changes and to add or delete resolutions. Whatever you do, do not burden yourself with too many or too difficult a resolutions.
4. Now it is time to take our formal written resolutions before God. We need to lay our resolution at God’s feet and ask for His blessing. There is no doubting the fact that our resolution has gotten the attention of Satan. Thus, we do not stand a snowball’s chance in hades of fulfilling our resolution without extreme divine intervention, which is gotten through prayer: a lot of prayer.
5. Now it is time to put the resolution into action. One reason we write out a detailed resolution is for reference throughout the year. We should make it a practice to review our resolution on a regular basis. It is also helpful to keep a diary of our results so that we will remain focused on attaining our objectives.
FOCUSING OUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
It certainly would be a good thing for us to resolve to become more fit. In fact, Paul told Timothy: “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8) In other words, getting more fit is good; but it would be far better for a Christian to first work on becoming more: patience, generous, kind, loving, understanding, helpful, joyful, faithful and peaceful.
When we make a resolution to improve earthly things it requires our changing our earthly way of doing something but when we resolve to improve our spiritual fruit it requires the renewing of our mind! To renew our mind we must stop focusing on what makes ME feel good and start focusing on what God expects from ME. Paul told the Romans: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.” (Romans 8:5-8) Improving ourselves in a self-focused way is not necessarily bad but it must come second to improving our relationship with Jesus.
CONCLUSION
To improve our relationship with Jesus we must improve our spiritual fruit. To improve our spiritual fruit we must nurture and feed our spirit. To nurture and feed our spirit we must spiritually: pray more, read the bible more, and go to church more. Please note: the key here is to do all of this in the spirit. Simply forcing yourself to pray more or read more or go to church more won’t work … such things are in danger of becoming righteous rags. Consider just how different it is to force yourself to read two chapters of the bible each morning, as compared to your setting down with the Bible and reading Paul’s letter to the Romans: as if you were a Roman Christian. Lying in bed, looking at the ceiling and mumbling a prayer, is not the same as getting on your knees and talking to God. Forcing yourself to spend one or two hours in church each week is not the same as going to church to see what God is doing. Improving our ritual performance does not bring us closer to Jesus.
People make the mistake of trying to discipline themselves into developing a better relationship with Jesus! What we really need to do is first establish a better relationship with the Holy Spirit: after all Jesus sent Him here to help us. We have got to enter into the spirit realm before we can ever start to transform our mind and mature in the spirit. And, we cannot enter into the spiritual realm without the help of the Holy Spirit. We must learn to pray with the help of the Holy Spirit and learn to read the bible in the power of the Holy Spirit and go to church with the Holy Spirit. Of course, we need to be going to a church where God is active: a religious social club or pious clique just won’t cut it. We improve our relationship with Jesus when we spiritually grow and mature.
When our spirit matures we will mature and when we mature in the spirit our relationship with Jesus is on a spiritual level rather than an earthly ritualistic level. In my humble opinion there is no better New Year’s Resolution than resolving to improve our relationship with Jesus; and there is no better way to improve our relationship with Jesus than first improving our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
