This morning I went to The Summit Church in Raleigh with a friend. The pastor stated his New Year’s resolution was to eat a piece of fruit every day to stay healthy.
“What’s your New Year’s Resolution?” Is the question that everyone asks at this time of year. Often the person either answers with, “I’m not making resolutions because I never keep them” or they ramble off a million goals that no super human could achieve in his or her lifetime.
I believe this displays two different attitudes. The first attitude shows somewhat of a lack of faith in the individual’s ability to meet a goal, the other displays an aggressive attempt to achieve in order to make themselves better in their own eyes or in the eyes of the world.
So what is the right attitude to have as we go into the New Year of 2012? I’m learning that there is nothing wrong with having an idea of what you want in life, but how often do we plan out our lives, piece by piece, only to discover that the puzzle isn’t coming together the way we envisioned?
This is why I’m not making resolutions this year. It’s not that I don’t have goals I want to achieve or that I don’t have faith that I will achieve them. It’s just that I’ve decided to stop planning out my life the way I think it should be so that God can write my life story.
This year, instead of writing out everything I want on a page, I’m going to leave it blank and put the pen in the true Author’s hands.
Maybe instead of making a wish list we should be asking:
What do you want for my life Jesus? Where do you want me to serve? Who do you want me to be friends with? What would you like me to achieve?
I think that a lot of times our resolutions are based upon what we think we need to do in order to gain the world’s approval and it’s not about what we need to do in order to glorify God and to further His kingdom.
There are two verses that come to mind:
Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”
First, we must seek God, and then must trust that He will direct us and give us what we need. In the end, we can discover that the greatest resolution of all is Christ’s goal to make us into what He wants us to be.
First time I read this one Michelle, it was really good and spoke to me also.