New Year's Resolutions
by Tom Brown
The turn of the New Year is a time where resolutions are often made. We take vows to change, to improve and to grow. We make promises to ourselves, to our spouses, to our friends, and to God. As our goals are set and the race begins we often feel invigorated by the challenge. But soon defeat sets in and robs us of our joy, often turning us right back to the bad habits we had such high ambitions to overcome. It is a strange cycle that we tend to repeat, always striving to prove by our own strength that we are better than we actually are. In the end, we find that what is needed for real change is more than we can provide for ourselves.
Our resolutions are almost always huddled around the same central goal: Self-Improvement. We want to be a better version of ourselves, to be more kind and more patient, to eat healthier and hit the gym more frequently. We want to be better parents, and better employees, we want to be more neighborly and self-disciplined. We make resolutions because we want to change who we currently are into being more like who we wish we already were. But what I submit to you is that God has a better way of bringing about the changes we desire. It is not based on our promises, but rather on his. In Second Peter 1:4 we see a glimpse into the real power for change:
"...he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature…"
If our goal is self-improvement what aim could be higher than to be a “partaker of the divine nature?” You see, God has loftier resolutions for your New Year than you do. It’s not that goals of diet and exercise are not important, it is just that God has even greater plans for our growth and joy. He intends to make us more like Jesus Christ, and his means for our transformation has nothing to do with the promises that we make. This text helps us see that it is the "precious and very great promises" of God that bring about real sanctification in the soul, not the promises and performances of his people. We often slip into a mentality that God is only fond of those who brim with success and determination, with productivity and good manners; but nothing could be further from the truth.
For starters, such people do not exist. We are all weak and needy, lost without the grace of God. Secondly, the only people who have a right relationship with God are the ones who lean into who he is, and what has has done for them through his Son, not those who rely on themselves. No one has ever worked their way into God’s love through resolutions of self-improvement and personal determination. It is only by the blood of Christ, shed for underserving sinners, that humanity has hope for reconciliation with their Heavenly Father. The most "precious and very great promise" of all is God’s promise to pardon and save anyone who would repent of their sin and believe in Jesus Christ.
If you would make any resolution this year, resolve to stop making promises to God and to start trusting more wholly in the promises he offers to you. The real power for change does not come from within yourself, but from God alone. You cannot claim a promise that you do not know, so I urge you to make a plan to meet with God every day. Feast on his Word and discover the “precious and very great promises” he has given to those who believe, “so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature…” being transformed into the incredible person God designed you to be.