Resolutions

Well, now that it is the new year, it is a good time to think about resolutions --or is it? Someone has defined resolutions as "something that goes in one year and out the other." Or as a old greeting goes, "May your troubles in the New Year be as short-lived as your resolutions." Or as a revealing question has it, "why do we never have our resolutions notarized?" All of these remind us that most well-intentioned resolutions are destined to failure. Why is this the case? Someone has said that the reason resolutions are so hard to keep is that "resolutions are promises to stop doing what we enjoy most."

So, what are your goals for the New Year. We as a church have some concrete goals we are working toward but what are your personal goals? I recently asked our congregation to add one service for God to our "to-do" lists and to move our relationship to God up at least one notch on our priority list. Both of these would make good goals but how can we make sure they do not just become another failed resolution? The answer is not in trying harder, it is trusting more, it is not just about doing but depending. Galations 6:16 says, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." Walking in the Spirit means we are actively trusting Him to give us the power to change. The key to change in the Christian life is the power of God being active within us. We are promised in Scripture that He is in all believers, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" I Corinthians 6:19. We need to have faith in His work and ability. Let's also remember that; " So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Romans 10:17. Our faith in His ability to change us will grow as we are in the Word of God.

My goal for 1996 (note, I didn't say resolution) is to continue to preach and teach the Word of God in a clear and straight forward fashion. I would like your goal to be here to hear. I would like for our combined Goal to be to add to our spiritual "to-do" list and with the help of the Holy Spirit continue the process of reordering our priorities.

Jesse Waggoner
Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

©1997 Calvary Baptist Church

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