Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions?” This is a question we often hear at this time of year. When I am asked this question, my answer is “I do not do New Year’s Resolutions.” When I see the confusion on the questioner’s face, I then quickly explain myself. “Why do we only wait until New Year's to make resolutions?  Why don’t we make them monthly, if not weekly, or daily? Every day is a new beginning.” 

As Christians, we should do this. We should resolve to spend time each day with God in prayer and in reading Scripture before starting our day. Every morning, we should decide not to do our will, but to do God’s Will in our lives. We should resolve not to help ourselves only, but to help those we see in need around us. We should resolve to listen to the still, small voice of God in all that we do, rather than being swayed by the conflicting voices all around us. Every day, we have the choice to follow God or to follow our own needs. And if we resolve to do that and later fail, we don’t wait until next year to make a new resolution. If we break our New Year’s Resolutions, so what? We don’t quit; we start again! That’s the beauty of following God. He knows we will often fail, but He allows us to start each day again if we ask Him, and He promises to help us if we let him.

Consider Lamentations 3:22-25: “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.” Let us take comfort in the fact that God will use us, if we allow Him to do so, and he will help us in our resolutions to follow Him, to help those around us, and to help us grow to be a “perfect reflection” of the example of the life of Jesus in our lives. So, instead of just making New Year's resolutions, let us strive to make daily resolutions to follow Him and improve our lives and those around us. God will help us with the rest. 

Remember the words of Joshua 1:7-9: “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.  Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

So let us all resolve to be strong and courageous as we begin the New Year, following God!

Bill R.