How to Keep a New Year’s Resolution: Be Empowered by God

One of the joys of a new year is the hope it generates that our lives can improve or our flaws can be overcome. The power of this hope often results in a New Year’s resolution. While there is disagreement about the usefulness of these resolutions or what makes a good resolution the one thing that we can all agree is we aren’t very good at keeping them. The average New Year’s resolution lasts about 10 days so by the time you read this post you will likely be more than halfway through a typical New Year’s resolution lifetime. So Instead of providing insight on what your New Year resolution should be or if you should have one at all (if you are interested in this topic see Jacob Smith’s post from December 2022), the focus of this post is how to keep a resolution (New Year’s or otherwise) to begin with. Put another way how do we develop a godly resolve to keep our commitments?

 

We should not rely on the power of our own will to complete the commitments God has set in our hearts.

 

First we should see that our conversion itself is a kind of resolution, empowered by God, to follow him. We have been saved from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and are now slaves to righteousness (Colossians 1:13, Romans 6:15-23). Upon conversion our life is now marked by a commitment to follow the ways of Christ. This commitment comes with great power to obey him. We should not rely on the power of our own will to complete the commitments God has set in our hearts. Instead we must trust that he will provide the power and encouragement to us. Knowing that he has rescued us and that he now empowers us reminds us that we should actively depend on him to keep the “resolves for good” that we have (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12).

 

Our failures are an opportunity to depend on God even more to restore the path he has set for us and keep our commitments.

 

Another key to keeping a godly commitment is knowing how to respond to failure. Failure of some kind is inevitable with a year long (or life long) commitment, so it is critical that we train ourselves to persevere and overcome them.  Godly resolutions don’t die because we fail to keep a commitment perfectly, they die because we simply quit. Often times our failures are so demoralizing and debilitating that we are tempted to give up our commitments altogether. Because of our sin, we should expect to fail at some point. This fact shouldn’t provide us comfort but rather it should encourage us to prepare ourselves to respond to our failures in a godly way. The prophet Micah is great example and encouragement in this regard. His response to failure is not to run away from God but to acknowledge the results of his sin and put his trust in the same God he has sinned against to “bring him out to the light” (Micah 7:8-9). So even our failures are an opportunity to depend on God even more to restore the path he has set for us and keep our commitments.

If despair is the disease that weakens our godly resolve, then joy is the tonic.

If despair is the disease that weakens our godly resolve, then joy is the tonic. Paul describes his ministry to the church in Corinth as a work “with you for your joy” (2 Corinthians 1:24). He goes on to give them many godly commitments that make for good resolutions. There are encouragements to give (2 Corinthians 9:6-15), to reconcile both to God and man (2 Corinthians 5:18), and to not tamper with God’s Word (2 Corinthians 4:2). We should see our godly commitments as a way to increase our joy in Christ, remove our despair, and keep our godly resolve. Our New Year’s resolutions and how we keep them (or not keep them) show us what we put our hope in. As we make these commitments, let us trust in God’s power to fulfill them, fight against our despair, and work toward joy in Christ.

Commit Yourself to God Daily!

[In Sunday’s sermon, I quoted from Charles Spurgeon’s sermon #2644, preached June 25, 1882, on the idea of committing ourselves to God. Spurgeon spoke on three texts: Luke 23:46, Psalm 31:5, and Acts 7:59. Here is a longer excerpt from that sermon, before and after the passage I quoted. You can read Spurgeon’s sermon in its entirety at this link – Coty]

May God bring us into such a state of mind and heart that there shall be no struggling to keep our life, but a sweet willingness to let it be just as God would have it—a yielding up of everything into His hands, feeling sure that, in the world of spirits, our soul shall be quite safe in the Father’s hands. . . . When God calls us to die, it will be a sweet way of dying if we can, like our Lord, pass away with a text of Scripture upon our lips, with a personal God ready to receive us, with that God recognized distinctly as our Father and so die joyously, resigning our will entirely to the sweet will of the ever-blessed One. . . .

My second text is in the 31st Psalm, at the 5th verse. And it is evidently the passage which our Savior had in His mind: . . .  “Into Your hands I commit my spirit: You have redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth.” It seems to me that THESE ARE WORDS TO BE USED IN LIFE, for this Psalm is not so much concerning the Believer’s death as concerning his life.

Is it not very amazing, dear Friends, that the words which Jesus uttered on the Cross you may still continue to use? You may catch up their echo and not only when you come to die, but tonight, tomorrow morning and as long as long as you are alive, you may still repeat the text the Master quoted, and say, “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.” . . .

That is to say, . . . let us cheerfully entrust our souls to God and feel that they are quite safe in His hands. Our spirit is the noblest part of our being; our body is only the husk, our spirit is the living kernel, so let us put it into God’s keeping. Some of you have never yet done that, so I invite you to do it now. It is the act of faith which saves the soul, that act which a man performs when he says, “I trust myself to God as He reveals Himself in Christ Jesus. I cannot keep myself, but He can keep me and, by the precious blood of Christ He can cleanse me. So I just take my spirit and give it over into the great Father’s hands.” You never really live till you do that! All that comes before that act of full surrender is death! But when you have once trusted Christ, then you have truly begun to live. And every day, as long as you live, take care that you repeat this process and cheerfully leave yourselves in God’s hands without any reserve. That is to say, give yourself up to God—your body, to be healthy or to be sick, to be long-lived or to be suddenly cut off. Your soul and spirit, give them, also, up to God, to be made happy or to be made sad, just as He pleases. Give Your whole self up to Him and say to Him, “My Father, make me rich or make me poor, give me sight or make me blind. Let me have all my senses or take them away. Make me famous or leave me to be obscure. I give myself up to You—into Your hands I commit my spirit. I will no longer exercise my own choice, but You shall choose My inheritance for me. My times are in Your hands.”

Now, dear children of God, are you always doing this? Have you ever done it? I am afraid that there are some, even among Christ’s professing followers, who kick against God’s will and even when they say to God, “Your will be done,” they spoil it by adding, in their own mind, “and my will, too.” . . .  Let us each one pray this prayer every day, “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.” . . .

Notice, dear Friends, that our second text has these words at the end of it—”You have redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth.” Is not that a good reason for giving yourself up entirely to God? Christ has redeemed you and, therefore, you belong to Him. If I am a redeemed man and I ask God to take care of me, I am but asking the King to take care of one of His own jewels—a jewel that cost Him the blood of His heart!

And I may still more especially expect that He will do so, because of the title which is here given to Him—”You have redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth.” Would He be the God of Truth if He began with redemption and ended with destruction—if He began by giving His Son to die for us and then kept back other mercies which we daily need to bring us to Heaven? No, the gift of His Son is the pledge that He will save His people from their sins and bring them home to Glory—and He will do it. So, every day, go to Him with this declaration, “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.” No, not only every day, but all through the day! . . .

David said to the Lord, “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.” But let me beg you to add that word which our Lord inserted—”Father.” . . . That is a sweet way of living every day—committing everything to our Heavenly Father’s hands, for those hands can do His child no unkindness.