Raise your hand if you made a resolution for 2012. Many do. Ok, so how many of you have already broke it?
I'm going to be short and to the point. Most New Year's Resolutions are destined to fail. Why? Usually because they are based on some kind of guilty feeling predicated by an unhealthy self-perception. Let me clarify.
John doesn't think he's buff enough so he heads back to the gym to pursue movie star abs his physique and habits cannot maintain. Jane wants to look like all the Hollywood-harlets starring in all the raunchy dramas she watches on cable so the starving begins.
Now let me highlight the same thing through the lens of religion.
John (or Jane) feels guilty because they don't read their bible very often so they commit to reading the bible through this year.
Often resolutions begin with the wrong motives. One shouldn't wish to read through the Word simply because they failed to last year. I read my bible cover to cover every year, sometimes twice in a year, but not because of some misguided sense of correction. I read it because I love it. I read because it is vital to my spiritual health.
For this same reason I maintain an active life. I try to watch my diet, and I exercise regularly--not to assuage guilt or espouse covetousness--but to safeguard my health.
Resolutions should not be a once a year commitment made in a guilt-ridden moment of Holiday hype. For the believer resolutions should be an every day prayer.
"God, make me better today than I was yesterday."
Not so that we can better fulfill society's shallow expectations, but so that we may better reflect the Father's impeccable creativity, masterful sovereignty, and unimpeachable holiness.
