A Life-Changing Resolution

Okay. You know the routine. It’s the beginning of a new year, and everyone wants to know what your New Year’s resolution is. More and more I hear people comment that they don’t make resolutions anymore because they always break them. I recently found myself in that camp until I discovered the perfect resolution.
There are several problems with the resolutions we usually make. Sometimes we make a resolution that is too general…read the Bible more, watch less tv.What constitutes more or less? If I only read one chapter in the Bible last year, I can read two this year. And, if I fast-forward through the commercials, I have technically watched less tv.
Sometimes they are too specific. If I pledge to lose 20 pounds and only manage 17, I feel like I have failed. And, too often, with resolutions that deal with exercise, diet, or such, we tend to give up the first time we “blow it.” Then, of course, there are those “lofty” resolutions we make knowing deep down we really have no desire or plan to keep. Things like, “I will not gossip;” and “I will not worry.”
So, what is the perfect resolution? It is one that requires a fresh start each day. Lamentations 3:23 says, “His mercies are new every morning.” It takes the focus off of me and my inadequacies and puts it on the author and perfector of my faith. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well.” It doesn’t rely on any one action or thought, it is the sum of all that I do and all that I am. Paul says, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead…let us live up to what we have already attained,” Phil. 3:13, 16.
The perfect resolution? My resolution for this year is this: I will not conform to the pattern of this world, instead, I will be transformed by the renewing of my mind then I will be able to test and approve what God’s good and perfect will is, Romans 12:2. How will I do that? I will spend time not just reading God’s word, but actively studying it (Study to show thyself approved). I will, like Jesus, spend intimate time in prayer seeking God’s will and listening to his still, small voice (Jesus went up on a mountainside to pray). And how can I measure success? I will walk as Jesus did. 1 John 2 says, God’s love is made complete in those who obey his commands. “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly,” 1 Peter 2:21-23.
My desire is that each day I will be more like Christ than the day before. If I spend the next 365 days actively seeking first his kingdom in my life and allowing God to reign over every area of my life, then I, with an unveiled face, will reflect the Lord’s glory, and be transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:18.