Resolved: No More Resolutions!

Dear God, my prayer for 2015 is a FAT bank account and a THIN body. Please don't mix it up like you did this year.

Ah, New Year's Day. A new year, a fresh start. A day of college football, the Winter Classic...oh, and updating that list of pesky resolutions from last year 2013 2012 2011, well, you know the routine.

So many folks are resolving today that their lives are going to be different, and happy, and successful. All because of a date on the calendar.

However Lamentations tells us that God's mercies are new morning, because of His great faithfulness.

People treat New Year’s like some sort of life-changing event. If your life stunk last year, there's a good chance it's probably going to stink tomorrow. Which is why we get caught in the rut of New Years Resolutions.

Everyone wants change, some more than others. Today there are countless lives trapped in bondage to stubborn habits. In fact Solomon said in Proverbs,

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.  Proverbs 5:22

We all have things we’d like to change about ourselves. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll be who you’ve always been.

So we decide we need to make changes, but how do we go about that?

We look at our lives and say I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that. This is how I’m going to change. And sometimes, we have short term success, but then lapse back into our old habits.

Anyone who has ever made New Year’s resolutions knows this well.

Why do we fail?

Because we don’t truly know ourselves.

How often have you heard the phrase “you don’t know me, you don’t know my life?”

How about “only God can judge me”...well if we’re honest that’s a scary proposition, not a relief.

Because we cannot truly know ourselves.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

When we decide that we know ourselves so well that we know what we need to change, it’s like us telling others "you need to change these things", and they reply “you don’t know me”

He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.  Proverbs 28:26

King Solomon was one of the wisest men that ever lived, and he said that the person who trusts his own heart is a fool.

So for someone to try and make lasting change on their own, would be foolish.

So what are we left to do?

“The marvel of divine revelation is that I can know God, but I cannot know myself.” Jim Elliot

The key is not in trying to "find ourselves", but in getting to know God.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.   John 17:3

If you wanted to fix your car, the best way to find out about that car is to get the information straight from the manufacturer.

The way to do that in our lives, is to get to know the One who made us. Begin to develop a relationship with Him, and allow Him to show us how and where to make changes in our lives.

In Jeremiah 17:9 we saw that the heart is deceitful and wicked, and that we can’t truly know it. The very next verse tells us who can know our heart -

I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Jeremiah 17:10

As we seek to develop that relationship with Him, our heart’s desire should be the same as King David, whom Jesus called “a man after God’s own heart”

23  Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:24  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

David knew it was futile to try and change himself on his own. So he asked the one who created him to do it.

Jesus gave us this same advice:

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32

Who is the truth?

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.   John 14:6

As we get to know Jesus, He makes us free. As we spend time in His Word and talk to Him in prayer, not only will He show us what needs to be changed, but how to be successful in making the lasting change.

If a slave says “I’m free”, he’s still in bondage, even if he runs away. He always has that fear of being returned to slavery. He’s never truly free. Unless…

The Master sets him free. If the Master tells him “you’re free”, then he is truly free. He can go wherever he wants, do what he wants.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. John 8:36

I submit to you that true freedom is found in Jesus Christ - in being forgiven of your sins, and in developing a relationship with him, allowing him to mold and change you.

So this year, I've only got one resolution - no more new year's resolutions!