New Year’s Resolutions
It’s trite to write about one’s New Year’s Resolutions at the beginning of a new year. Many writers do it. I’ve done it. But I’ve resolved not to be a trite writer, so I’m not going to write about my New Year’s Resolutions this year.
In fact, I’m not going to make any New Year’s Resolutions. I’m terrible at keeping them so this year I’m just not going to it. A few years ago, I decided I’d give up resolutions for Lent. But I never make it to Lent without already failing at my resolutions. So, I decided I better just stay away from resolutions altogether.
I’m a big fan of Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century New England pastor and theologian. I even named my older son Jonathan. Edwards was famous for his Resolutions. He had a list of 70 resolutions and by all accounts did a pretty good job of keeping them.* I’ve wondered before why Edwards was more successful at keeping his resolutions than I ever have been.
One reason might be because he wrote them down. Resolutions are kind of like goals. I’ve been told that when it comes to setting and achieving goals it is essential to write them down. A goal that is not written down is just a dream. Maybe a resolution that is not written down is just a wish. Edwards was serious about keeping his resolutions. For him, they were not just wishes. His resolutions guided his life. He wrote them down.
Another reason that Edwards was better at keeping resolutions than I ever have been is that he understood the power source for keeping resolutions. In the past, I’ve decided to try harder, to dig down deep inside and tap into, as one author put it, “that force within you that knows when to act and when to move and gives you the strength to do so.” Usually, by the middle of February, the gauge on my power force within was hovering around zero. I was done.
Edwards was better at keeping his resolutions because he didn’t depend on his inner strength. He wrote, “Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake.”
Edwards approached the making and keeping of resolutions with much humility. He knew that he needed God’s help to keep his resolutions and he asked for it. But he only asked for help in keeping resolutions that were agreeable with God’s will. In other words:
1. He wanted to align his resolutions with God’s will, not his own.
2. He confessed that he could not, no matter how hard he tried, keep these resolutions. He needed God’s grace.
3. His ultimate purpose for his resolutions was not just to become a better person. His ultimate purpose was for Christ’s sake. That is, he was most concerned that he glorified God.
Maybe if I’d approached my New Year’s Resolutions the way that Jonathan Edwards approached his resolutions, I would have done better at keeping them. But, as I said, I’ve given up on New Year’s Resolutions and I’m not writing about resolutions. Instead, I’m going to write about what Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “No one ever served God by doing things tomorrow.”
Dreams, wishes, thoughts, and plans—or resolutions—are all well and good. Spurgeon wrote, “There are many things which our heart finds to do… It is well it is in our heart; but if we would be eminently useful, we must not be content with forming schemes in our heart and talking of them; we must practically carry out ‘whatever our hand finds to do’” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
Spurgeon continued, “One good deed is worth more than a thousand brilliant ideas. Don’t wait for large opportunities, or for a different kind of work, but do just the things we ‘find to do’ day by day. We have no other time in which to live. The past is gone; the future has not arrived; we never shall have any time but the present… Serve God now, do it with all your might. Do it promptly; do not fritter away your life in thinking of what you intend to do tomorrow as if that could compensate for idleness today. No one ever served God by doing things tomorrow (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, November 26, p 662).
So that’s what I will do, I will do the things I find to do today.
1. I will “seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6). I will begin my day in the Word and in prayer.
2. I will “love the Lord my God with all my heart, and all my soul, and with all my mind” (Matthew 22:37).
3. I will “love my neighbor as myself” (Matthew 22:39). I will love and serve my wife, our children, our volunteers, our prisoners, our donors, our church, and all those the Lord brings across my path.
4. I will seek to glorify God and enjoy him today.
You know, those kind of seem like resolutions, don’t they? I guess they are. So be it. I will humbly ask God for his grace to keep these resolutions as far as they are agreeable to his will.
Spurgeon wrote, “Whatever you do for Christ, throw your whole soul into it. Do not give Christ a little slurred work, done as a matter of course now and then; but when you do serve Him, do it with heart, and soul, and strength.
“But where is the might of Christians? It is not in ourselves, for we are perfect weakness. Our might lies in the Lord of Hosts. Then let’s seek His help; let’s proceed with prayer and faith, and when we have done what our ‘hand finds to do,’ let’s wait upon the Lord for his blessing. What we do in this manner will be well done and will not fail in its effect” (Morning and Evening, 662).
That is my hope for the New Year, to throw my whole self into seeking the Lord for his help and trusting him for his blessing.
Happy New Year!
Much love, Barry