How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

It’s a New Year! A new year brings a time of new beginnings, new goals, and for many, New Year’s resolutions. What kind of goals do you have for yourself this year? My family incorporates our New Year’s resolutions into our Christmas celebration. 

We have a “Happy Birthday Jesus” box. It is our birthday gift to Jesus to make a spiritual goal to accomplish for the coming year. We write our goal on an index card, seal it, and put it in the box. Nobody else sees what we write; it is between each person and God. Each year we pull out our previous year’s envelope and evaluate whether or not we made progress toward our goal. 

When my kids were little, they needed help with their goals. They were often amusing….to not annoy the cat, to not fight with a sister, to clean their rooms. Over time, they did these on their own and added spiritual depth to their objectives, like reading their Bible more or spending more time in prayer. 

My goals change every year. I have had goals to be more patient, to spend more time with family, to eat healthy, and even to start this blog! Making my goal a gift of obedience to Christ makes it easier to prioritize it as something important. 

Sometimes New Year’s resolutions are hard to keep. But there is something different when we make promises to God instead of to ourselves. There is strength when we bring God on board to help us. 

David knew this truth—that he had to do more than to just resolve to be obedient. He knew that his strength for living an obedient life was not in mustering up his own strength, but in asking God to give him strength. In Psalm 19:13, he wrote, “Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.” 

Jude 24 says that it is God “who is able to keep you from stumbling.” Amidst the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the spiritual forces of darkness from the enemy, God has put His Holy Spirit in believers to give us power over sin. 

But that doesn’t mean we don’t sin. It means we have a place to take our sin. When we are disappointed in ourselves, it’s easy to think that God is disappointed in us, begrudgingly rationing out His grace, warning us that we are close to reaching our limit. His grace is nothing like that! Instead, He invites us to run to the cross and remember that the blood of Jesus covers our sin, even those sins we repeatedly struggle with. 

As you make resolutions and goals this new year, remember His grace! “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness,” (Lamentations 3:22,23). 

There is new grace for every goal. New mercies for every mistake. New strength for every struggle. Bring God on board with your goals this year and give your gift to Jesus. Great is the faithfulness of God our Savior! Happy New Year!