Resolved...

Have you been thinking about making some New Year's resolutions?

Be encouraged 2010 may very well be a year when God will make momentous things happen in your life. Making resolutions can be a very helpful way to train ourselves to acknowledge the effects of God working in our lives. The book of Psalms affirms, "Commit your way to the Lord; Trust also in Him, and He will do it" (37:5). I am a firm believer that no matter what we do we can not move outside of God's plan for us. Our lives essentially consist of the exercise of our wills to think, act or speak and our wills are shaped by deep spiritual desires that are birthed in The Creator God. Therefore a resolution is simply the bringing together of our desire with our will and making a plan. If you are successful, the plan aligns with God's plan. If you are not, the plan deviates from His plan. Using that logic there is value in measuring the quality of our plans against what we know is right, their likelihood of success and our past experiences.

Are any of the things that you are planning to do have, what I will call, 'cumulative success'? Meaning, whatever degree to which you accomplish your goals you can add to that accomplishment next year and the year after and so on (ie. exercise, diet etc.). Because if that's the case you may have already made progress on these last year without declaring them a formal New Year's resolution.

So, here are some suggestions to improve the likelihood of seeing a New Year's resolution come to pass. Consider asking yourself these questions as you contemplate what you would like to change, begin or cease.

1) What good things have you been doing this past year which could get even better?

2) Has anything changed during this year that may have contributed to the increase of these good things? (ie. an encounter with God, friendships, books, teachers, church, media influences)

3) Are any of these good activities producing in you transferable habits or skills that could help you achieve other goals? (ie. you have been budgeting your spending money and that could be used to organize your groceries for the week ahead to have healthier food.)

One further thought to consider is this. Jonathan Edwards, a man often called the greatest mind America ever produced lived his life by a list of resolutions. Allow me to share with you one of my favourites of those. "52. I frequently hear persons in old age, say how they would live if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age." Hopefully you are feeling good about this year ahead, but whatever you are planning it is valuable to make optimistic goals for yourself; pray, write them down and tell people in your life about them. You never know, you might be successful with some of them.