Email Devotion
The Name of JEsus January 1, 2017
So let’s be honest here. They never really work out, do they? I’m talking about your New Year’s resolutions. If stats on these things are correct, then less than 10% of us will have success in truly changing our lifestyles through our January 1st promises to ourselves. Whether they are the typical resolutions of weight loss, quitting smoking, exercising faithfully, saving money, and getting organized … or are more exotic ones like hiking to the top of Everest, or learning to speak Mandarin, or finishing all the levels of Candy Crush Saga.
So what’s the problem? Maybe we look at these statements through the wrong lens. Instead of proclaiming that we are making resolutions, maybe we should speak these statements as confessions. Because aren’t most of them correctives to realities in our lives that we wish were different? Are they not places where we feel we do not live up to the principles and disciplines that we envision for our lives? Aren’t they are places where we feel we come up short? Sounds a lot like confession and forgiveness to me.
So at the start of this New Year, why not try something different this year. Why don’t you offer up these statements as confessions to your loving God, and enlist the help of the One who truly has the power to transform your life through forgiveness, repentance, and the invitation to live life in a new way? In so doing, you will invite into your New Year’s discipline someone who can actually help you along with way with strength, vision and courage. And you enlist as support for your efforts, all the resources of faith, scripture and Christian tradition. It is not a slam dunk, as we have learned throughout the life of the Christian church. But it offers you realistic hope. Maybe you are due for something different this year.
