“. . . discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:7b-8
I saw a cartoon quip the other day where one asks another, “What’s a New Year’s Resolution?” The response was classic: “A to do list for the first week of January.”
I am not a huge fan of New Year’s Resolutions. Most of the ones I have made have come from good intentions, but those intentions only seem to last as long as the desire to follow it (which is obliterated at the first passing of a plate of cookies). They are fleeting. I cannot simply resolve myself into better health, cutting back on coffee (if for some odd reason a person would choose to do such a thing), eating well, disciplined study habits, writing rituals—so long as my resolve is based on my own doing. A resolution is no better than the idea of will power—“I will resist this, I will keep myself from; I will get up, I will be disciplined”—which gives a list of things to accomplish and a lot of room for failure. So long as my resolve to do these things is based on what it gets me, I will succeed as long as there isn’t something better to catch my attention. Or, as James 1:14 puts it, I will succeed until I am carried away and enticed by my own lusts.
Are resolutions bad for a believer? The desire to make changes for health, lifestyle, discipline, and the like, can be very good. When your motivation for change, though, is centered on yourself, you are making changes for your own glory. Do you want your resolutions to be God-centered and to last? Check out your motivations for change. Resolutions rooted in the gospel are resolutions that last, because your motivation for change in these areas is based in something greater than yourself.
What’s your motivation to lose weight, drink less caffeine, exercise more, read the Word more, pray more, memorize more Scripture, read more books, and/or be more organized? Would you still do these things if nobody else knew you were doing them? Who is your audience, man or God? Who are you trying to please, man or God? Resolutions that are man centered are rooted in failure and disappointment; resolutions that are God centered are where you will be able to see lasting change.
It is less of a resolution and more of living out Ephesians 4:22-24 and Romans 12:2. It is putting off the old man (the things you want to change, or the things the Lord wants you to change—put off the sin, the old habits), be transformed by the renewing of your mind (change motivated out of a love for the Lord, to be obedient to the Lord, to glorify Him), and putting on the new man (making changes based off that love for the Lord to eat better, have more disciplined study habits, etc.). It is easy to make a resolution, but it falls short—it is the putting off/putting on without the mind renewal, the change. It is behaviorism, change rooted in self. There's something greater, something better, something more lasting—there is Jesus Himself.
By all means, make your resolutions this year—but be more like Jonathan Edwards, who resolved to change for the glory of God and by the power of God. If you haven’t read Edwards resolutions before, spend some time doing so--click here to read them. You will be blessed by it. Examine the reason for your resolution. A heart set on the glory of God, resolved to do His will, is a heart that makes a resolution that lasts. Ultimately, it becomes a resolution to repent. That is a resolution worth keeping.
I saw a cartoon quip the other day where one asks another, “What’s a New Year’s Resolution?” The response was classic: “A to do list for the first week of January.”
I am not a huge fan of New Year’s Resolutions. Most of the ones I have made have come from good intentions, but those intentions only seem to last as long as the desire to follow it (which is obliterated at the first passing of a plate of cookies). They are fleeting. I cannot simply resolve myself into better health, cutting back on coffee (if for some odd reason a person would choose to do such a thing), eating well, disciplined study habits, writing rituals—so long as my resolve is based on my own doing. A resolution is no better than the idea of will power—“I will resist this, I will keep myself from; I will get up, I will be disciplined”—which gives a list of things to accomplish and a lot of room for failure. So long as my resolve to do these things is based on what it gets me, I will succeed as long as there isn’t something better to catch my attention. Or, as James 1:14 puts it, I will succeed until I am carried away and enticed by my own lusts.
Are resolutions bad for a believer? The desire to make changes for health, lifestyle, discipline, and the like, can be very good. When your motivation for change, though, is centered on yourself, you are making changes for your own glory. Do you want your resolutions to be God-centered and to last? Check out your motivations for change. Resolutions rooted in the gospel are resolutions that last, because your motivation for change in these areas is based in something greater than yourself.
What’s your motivation to lose weight, drink less caffeine, exercise more, read the Word more, pray more, memorize more Scripture, read more books, and/or be more organized? Would you still do these things if nobody else knew you were doing them? Who is your audience, man or God? Who are you trying to please, man or God? Resolutions that are man centered are rooted in failure and disappointment; resolutions that are God centered are where you will be able to see lasting change.
It is less of a resolution and more of living out Ephesians 4:22-24 and Romans 12:2. It is putting off the old man (the things you want to change, or the things the Lord wants you to change—put off the sin, the old habits), be transformed by the renewing of your mind (change motivated out of a love for the Lord, to be obedient to the Lord, to glorify Him), and putting on the new man (making changes based off that love for the Lord to eat better, have more disciplined study habits, etc.). It is easy to make a resolution, but it falls short—it is the putting off/putting on without the mind renewal, the change. It is behaviorism, change rooted in self. There's something greater, something better, something more lasting—there is Jesus Himself.
By all means, make your resolutions this year—but be more like Jonathan Edwards, who resolved to change for the glory of God and by the power of God. If you haven’t read Edwards resolutions before, spend some time doing so--click here to read them. You will be blessed by it. Examine the reason for your resolution. A heart set on the glory of God, resolved to do His will, is a heart that makes a resolution that lasts. Ultimately, it becomes a resolution to repent. That is a resolution worth keeping.