New Years Resolutions are Totally Unhelpful

Do you like applesauce?

How about cauliflower?

Fun fact - if you make a New Years Resolution to not eat the very 2 foods you hated growing up, your mom does still make you eat them. Learned that the hard way :)

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All jokes aside, this is part of the reason why I think New Years Resolutions are not helpful.

You did not make a true decision within your deepest self to change your life for the better.

A New Years Resolution is a decision based off of a societal pressure and just the right vibes in the air.

Its kinda like kids at Bible Camp that claim they want to devote their life to Jesus, but when they return home, they go right back to the way they were living.

Why? Because, for that week, they were in a “bubble” where everyone was doing it and it sounded cool. And when that “bubble” went away, reality re-entered, and it was back to the same old me.

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You must redefine your inner identity, not just your outward actions.

“God, I love You.”

“God, I am Your’s, not my own.”

“God, I want to see Your glory increase through my life.”

“God, I realize the way I am living is not increasing Your glory.”

“God, I do not want to keep serving my flesh and my desires. I want to serve You and win the war over my sin.”

“God, create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.”

If that’s you speaking that over your life right now, you don’t need a certain date on a calendar to start honoring God with your life.

You would understand that the best time to have said that was years ago, and the second best time is right this moment.

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So if you make a New Years Resolution, it’s totally okay! God can totally use that too!

But don’t get frustrated when you struggle to keep up with the Resolution when you never rooted it in something (and Someone) that lasts.

“…Be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)

And maybe leave the applesauce and cauliflower in the diet, yeah? :)

- Michael