The Best New Year’s Resolution Ever!

At the start of every year, we find a lot of people making what is called New Year’s resolutions.

It’s generally about personal goals or commitments to improve aspects of their lives. So common resolutions typically include to achieve better health, become more fit, learn new skills, or many would decide to make some other positive lifestyle change.

The problem is, many people do not quite achieve these targets because they do not set realistic and achievable goals.

How many of you, year after year, have made a decision to stop smoking or drinking alcohol or cut back on some of unhealthy habit? What about a decision to begin to exercise by going to the gym or spending more quality time with your family and friends, deciding to travel more, take up some academic studies to improve in your career, things like that.

And here’s one for me, because I always say I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but during any given period in my life, I would decide and actually start a regimen of saving money. I have financial goals, because there are things I’d like to achieve that require having money - like paying off debts, completing my house or buying a new car. I would decide I need to set aside loose change or every 5 or 20 dollar for example. So, I would try to tighten up on my spending, but the pull to visit Amazon gets the better of me sometimes. What can I say?

We get all emotional and say we are going to do this and we are going to do that, sometimes to impress people or follow the crowd, sometimes with good intentions, but we don’t often think everything through.

But we don’t clearly define these goals, we don’t establish criteria to track progress, we don’t even set realistic goals. Because if like many of us living from pay cheque to pay cheque, we know our money is finished before we even get it, with the amount of bills we have to pay, right?

As Christians, we even decide that at the start of the New Year, we are going to either read the Bible from cover to cover or just get into some more Bible Study, or even start back going to church. Because we know some of us have gotten so accustomed to church online during COVID that we forgot the buildings have reopened.

But I want to submit to us this morning that the best New Year’s Resolution we can make, in fact the best anytime of the year resolution we can make, is to develop a closer walk, a deeper connection, a more personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

If you want to get to know someone, you have to reach out or be receptive when someone reaches out to you. And there must be conversation, two-way conversation, active listening, asking open-ended questions, and listening for the responses. Of course, building a connection takes time, so persons getting to know one another must spend quality and meaningful time together.

Again, I believe I am speaking to Christians and there are others who might be interested in knowing more about this Jesus these Christian people keep talking about.

The Bible is our manual and it is very clear. If we want to know God, we must seek Him through prayer and His Word.

Reading from the New King James version:

James 4:8 ”Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Psalm 63:1 ”O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.“

Isaiah 55:6 ”Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.“

Jeremiah 29:13 ”And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.“

Psalms 119:105 ”Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.“

Colossians 3:16 ”Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.“

II Timothy 2:15 ”Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.“

Proverbs 3:5-6 ”Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.“

And there are so many other scriptures we can refer to as we make the best resolution ever, to get to know the Lord on a personal level. But we have to get in The Word and stay in The Word.

Some of us are still so busy as the year came to an end, and a new year rolled around, trying to do all sorts of things to fit into these cliques so that we can be popular and liked and favoured, when we really should be focused on aligning ourselves with the Creator of the universe, who is the only One who knows what’s best for us.

The Bible tells us to seek Him first, His Kingdom and righteousness, and everything else we need would be added unto us. Matthew 6:33.

The Bible tells us to rely on God who has the ability to supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19.

I want to make a commitment to this God who is so great that He created this world yet invites me into His presence.

I think that’s the best New Year’s resolution we can make. Don’t you?

aub 9 January 2024

admin@zjoyvi.com