It always happens when the new year comes around that someone will ask what my new years resolution will be. The main idea or goal associated with New Year’s is the making of resolutions or promises to stop or start something in the new year. My answer is always the same as it was the year before. I don’t make resolutions for the new year. Now, I do make goals and work at them. Those goals aren’t based on if it is 2014 or 2015. As the new year approaches people will reflect or look back on their lives and the past year. Most of the time it is what they have accomplished and what they have failed in.
In my opinion we don’t need a date on a calender to decide to make a change. A good friend of mine always makes a resolution to loose weight and become a size 5. She is gung ho for about a month and gives up on it. She then proceeds to put that resolution off till the next year since she failed at it. She beats herself up because she feels like a failure and ends up gaining even more weight because of the depression she has because she thinks she failed.
I don’t know if the Bible says anything about New Year’s resolutions directly. It does say in Psalm 118:24 that every day is the day the Lord has made, “we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
A resolution is a type of promise. When we promise to do something it isn’t anything we should take lightly. The Bible say’s in Ecclesiastes 5:2,4 and 5 is that if one makes promises or vows to God, it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Here is my list of promises I have for this year.
Read My Bible: When I think of what I would like to do this year and every year is to read my Bible more. Not the online ones, but my Bible that I can hold in my hands and thumb through it and make notes. For me there is nothing like holding a real book over reading it on a Kindle or a Nook. but these resolutions can fail without correct motivation. The incentive must come from within with purpose and a plan. Even though there might be a setback at times, the best thing to do is to immediately start again.
Study the Bible: This is one of those areas I slack in. I have to really focus on studying because my attention span is pretty small and I get distracted easy. Our church does Bible studies, but they are very much over my head and hard to go to due to my medical situation and being on home health. I would love to do is small group study at my house that isn’t difficult to grasp. The one I would like to do is MacArthur Bible Studies.I guess for me, it is easier to keep up with and not as distracting.
It is one thing to read the Bible, but another thing to study and to really know what the Bible says. John 6:68 tells us that the words of Jesus are the words of eternal life. There is no other book as important as the Bible. If we want to know God, and please Him, we must study His Word.
Pray More: I do pray and have many conversations with God. I find praying for others a lot easier than praying for myself. There are times though that I need to pray when I’m not at my wits ends. If I didn’t try things my way, I would have found out going to God to begin with would have been the smart thing to do and a whole lot less painful. I try to fix the problem myself instead of going to God.
Share the Gospel With Others: I love sharing the Gospel with others. I love sharing my testimony too. What I do need to do though is to not want to hit someone over the head with a hammer to knock some sense into them. I need to remember that I’m not there to win and argument, but to introduce others to Christ. I pray that when I witness to others and present the Gospel to them that God will guide my words and thoughts. In 1 Peter 3:15 we are told “…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect”. This is an area I need to work on since I am not a patient person when it comes to witnessing. I want results right now, not down the line. Sometimes I am just the one planting the seed.
Senseless Ramblings of the Mindless 