Beyond Our Resolutions
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Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution in your life? As the new year approaches, many people seek to make a change or commit to something new for the coming year. Maybe it’s trying to reach a health goal—going running every morning, hitting the gym three times a week, or attempting to stop eating that beloved unhealthy food that we convince ourselves isn’t that bad. And although our intentions were good, many of us may start out faithfully keeping our commitments to ourselves. But as life goes on and new commitments and circumstances come our way, the first thing to get thrown out is often that New Year’s resolution. Those promises we made to ourselves become loose commitments. Loose commitments become occasional and abnormal activities in our lives, and eventually they turn into cool ideas we hope to achieve one day. At the risk of sounding unkind, the reality is that all of us, as fallen people, are nothing short of fickle. We become uncommitted to the things we once committed to. We become distracted and focused on “the next” thing, and we make promises to ourselves that we don’t keep. On a more serious note than New Year’s resolutions, this can be a discouraging reality for believers when it comes to our spiritual lives. While it may not be a big deal if we miss a gym day or forget to run, when we fail to obey the Scriptures the way we have told God we would, or when we fall short and sin by getting upset with a family member or coworker, we often feel the weight of discouragement. We may even wonder how we could ever be transformed into the likeness of Christ when we have made mistakes and have been guilty of making “empty promises” to God. But I want us to be encouraged today that, despite our struggle with our fickle nature as sinners, this is not what determines our ability to be transformed as Christians. Rather, our growth rests on the faithfulness of God to keep His promises. In Philippians 1:6, Paul states this: Throughout Scripture, we see God keep all of His promises and remain faithful to His people. God promised to deliver the Israelites from Egypt—and He did. God promised to send a Messiah through the lineage of Abraham and David—and He did. And God promises to finish in us what He has started, and we can have confidence that He will. The reality is, if you are a follower of Jesus, God has started a good work in you, and He intends to bring it to completion. This faithfulness and promise from God is what enables us to be transformed in the midst of our struggling and sometimes fickle faith. Now, don’t get me wrong—we still have a responsibility to choose to follow Christ in obedience, and we will be accountable for how we choose to respond to His enabling grace. But as we approach this upcoming year, I want us to be challenged and encouraged that our continued growth in faith is not reliant upon our fickle nature, but on the faithfulness of our God to keep His promises. Despite our brokenness and shortcomings, we as followers of Jesus can be changed and transformed into His likeness in 2026, because He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Regardless of our human frailties, let us be people in 2026 who allow the faithfulness of God’s work in our lives to transform us into His image. Serving Together, Bro. Luke |