New Year’s Resolutions.  Do you make them?  If you do, will you keep them?  Do you even believe in them?

  I could never keep a New Year’s resolution.  Sometimes they were set beyond reason, there was no plan to back them up, or I knew in my heart of hearts that I didn’t really want to change that area of my life.

I do believe in them.  It’s a brand new year with brand new possibilities so why not set some goals to make changes?  But I’m taking a new approach.  I’m backing up my resolutions with scriptures.  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Jeremiah 29:11.  If I begin to recognize God’s plan for my life, my resolutions become more attainable.

Before setting a New Year’s resolution or maybe you will need to change them, think about Philippians 4:8-9, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me – everything you heard from me and saw me doing.  Then the God of peace will be with you.”  God directed Paul’s life and he can direct yours in the same manner.  Paul set his mind on good things, God directed things.

It doesn’t take long into the new year, a few short days, for old habits to creep right back into place.  Old routines are comfortable and easy to slip back into like a great old sweatshirt or a broken-in pair of tennis shoes.  It’s hard to resist the temptation to do that and, instead, fight to hold onto the new ground gained.  Hebrews 11:40 reminds us that we can’t “receive the prize until we finish the race.”  2 Chronicles 20:15b also reminds us that we can turn the fight into God’s, “Do not be afraid!  Don’t be discouraged…for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

Throughout the year, don’t forget to ask God for his help in accomplishing your goal.  “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his might power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”  Ephesians 3:20.

Submitted by Marie Engquist

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