According to Sarah Davis, the top New Year’s resolutions have to do with physical and mental well-being, diet, and financial health. These are all good things to consider, whether as a resolution for the New Year or for any time.
But what about resolutions that glorify God? How can we employ the idea of New Year’s Resolutions to know Him better and enjoy him more? Here are seven ideas to help you think outside the box.
1. Resolve to Ask God
Paul, writing about the Macedonian Christians, said, “They gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us” (2 Corinthians 8:5). The men and women of these congregations set their sights first on the will of God in everything, and then acted out of obedience.
Simply doing good works is not the same as doing God’s will. After all, there are many kinds of good works you could be doing in the New Year: are you going to pursue them all and wear yourself out, neglect your family, your health, and even God?
The Lord will bless the work of your hands when it originates with him. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
We can certainly try to do our best, and we might even imagine that our work pleases God. But think about how it feels when someone assumes he knows what you want instead of just asking you — wouldn’t you like to be consulted? Why guess? Ask him. The fruit is His, not ours.
Resolve to ask, “What would please you, Lord? How can I delight you today?” Or, when confronted with two or more choices, ask God, “Which direction would you like me to take?” Then, resolve to wait and try to discern his answer.
2. Add People into Your Life
Resolve to get involved with people. If you leave the church, find a good one and return. If you have no hobbies, start a new one. The extroverts, and even the extroverted introverts, among you, recognize what counselors and pastors point out: that being alone all the time is unhealthy.
We all need others in our lives, outside of work, to help us maintain a reasonable perspective on the world around us. If you are eager to work on your mental health or to sustain it, make people a priority.
Pastors, in particular, will point to biblical examples such as the disciples’ fellowship with one another, and it cannot have always been an easy fellowship. After all, Mathew was a tax collector, and his fellow disciples had felt the sting of his collections.
Having people around us forces us to exercise and develop character traits such as patience, kindness, humility, not holding a record of wrongs, and more. How do we grow if we are not challenged? And how do we recognize our own faults until we live among others?
We are instructed to live life among others in order to encourage fellow believers, to grow in faith, and to spread the gospel.
1 John 1:7 tells us, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” A Christian walks in the light, and that light must be shared with others.
3. Resolve to Ask Questions
We all know that one person (or more) who can’t seem to stop talking. She never asks you about yourself or maybe adds one question into a conversation but is clearly thinking about what she wants to say next, not listening to you. Maybe this is you? Resolve to ask questions.
If you have embraced idea number two and started to meet more people, this is a great way to get started. If you are listening and can reflect as much in your conversation, this shows that you care.
Start small. You don’t have to ask about the weather, but begin with common ground. Everyone does something with their time away from work.
How do you entertain yourself during your downtime? Reading? TV? Fitness? Most people have goals, perhaps a bucket list. Compare notes about dream holidays or the perfect day off. Share childhood memories related to Valentine’s Day or Easter.
Forming a bond is possible, even between people who are very different. Colossians 3:14 teaches that love “binds everything in perfect unity.” Consider how you can love this person and build into her life as an acquaintance or even as a new friend.
Eventually, you will get to the topic of faith, and more often than not, you will be speaking to one who does not believe. Make it a resolution to truly love this person, and the opportunities to share the gospel will materialize according to God’s perfect plan.
Moreover, you will be sharing Jesus by reflecting His love through your own genuine love for the person opposite you.
4. Work Words into Your Day
Did you ever meet someone who would come across a strange word and resolve to use it in a sentence every day for a week?
Make it your resolution to find a Greek or Hebrew word in the Bible and use it every day, whether in speech or writing. You will discover these words in one of a few ways:
- During your devotions. As you explore a passage, go to BibleHub where Strong’s Concordance includes an interlinear feature, which gives you English alongside the original Hebrew or Greek.
- Pick out a word that you find regularly in the Bible such as “grace,” “Lord,” or “fruit.” Take that word to Strong’s Concordance and find the definition(s).
- Pick out a word that comes up rarely in the Bible, such as “relax,” “passage,” or “midwife.”
Once you have your word, you can begin to pick it apart, an exercise that can take days. Resolve to learn more about the Lord through a careful exploration of original definitions.
What you often find is that your understanding was two-dimensional compared with the deeper meaning.
For example, the word “peace” in Greek, eiréné, means “when all essential parts are joined together.” This is far removed from the usual understanding of “peace” as the absence of conflict.
How can you have peace, even when you are immersed in a conflict that is not of your own making?
5. Resolve to Apply the Commandments
Each of us sins every day. Maybe you know some area of your life where you are having real trouble walking in the light and standing fast against temptation.
Consider working through the Ten Commandments, one by one, and seeing where you have the most difficulty. With the New Year, resolve to start at the top and work your way down.
Number one (Exodus 20:3) says, “You shall have no other Gods before me.”.Sounds easy, but everything we think of and care about more than God is a god in our lives.
That could be money, family, exercise, drugs, alcohol, or work. If you are unsure of what matters most to you, go through the list of things you believe you could not live without.
Maybe God is first in your life, but you struggle with one of the other commandments. Most of us have never killed anyone, but we have committed murder in our hearts by holding on to anger (Matthew 5:22).
Resolve to ask God to help you forgive someone who has sinned against you or to change your perspective if you are apt to feel anger generally.
Maybe you are unsure as to which of the commandments you are breaking — pray that the Lord will reveal your sin.
Pray to your Father in Heaven, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24).
6. Pray the Psalms
One good habit is to work your way through the Psalms and to follow the writers’ lead. In Christopher Ash’s opinion, “the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer is filled out by the Psalms, which expand on and echo its themes.”
We don’t always know what to pray, and sometimes, we wonder if we can really say certain things to God. Praying the Psalms shows us that, really, nothing is off limits. “Not only do the Psalms encapsulate all the Bible’s teaching, they also express every facet of human experience.”
Make it a resolution to pray through a Psalm regularly. The timing and distance between them are less important than the intention: to pay attention.
Is this a Psalm full of turmoil or a song of exultation? What do you learn about God’s character? How do you relate to the Psalmist’s heart and experience?
If you prefer, select a Psalm that is personally relevant right now. Maybe you want unity among your family members, and you want to pray in a joyous tone: try Psalm 133. “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (v.1). Ask God to strengthen bonds between fellow believers at church or in the family.
Perhaps you wonder how life can go so badly for faithful men and women, you know, while those who reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ seem to flourish.
Psalm 37:1-3 helps us to remember that God is in control. “Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord.” Ask God to help you trust him more.
7. Resolve to Write
Have you ever thought of writing your own summary of some passage of the Bible using language that is more accessible to you?
Ask yourself, “Do I just repeat what I see and try to memorize it, or do I really understand what I’m reading?” Resolve to personalize and understand Scripture by making it your own.
Maybe you can imagine a modern setting and people with names you would hear in everyday life. Perhaps you would reduce a narrative portion to a short poem? Or would you like to reduce a wordy letter of Paul’s down to a summary of just one-tenth its original length?
Your objective is not to re-interpret but to get a better handle on the reason and meaning behind Scripture, to see how it is relevant, and to bring it to life if it hasn’t meant much to you in the past.
While you are perhaps drawn to certain events more than others, or particular letters, or prophecies, take a minute to ask, What do I think would be difficult to put into my own words?” We generally want to go where we feel comfortable.
The idea here, though, is not to win a prize or get an “A” — no one else has to see what you wrote. Consider choosing a passage that you would otherwise avoid because it is particularly challenging.
If you get stuck, stay with this Bible story or instruction for a while and meditate on it. Remember that all of Scripture is important.
And whatever resolution you choose, remember that this is for you. No one is grading you. Any resolution you set for the sake of your own glory or to prove you are a “good” Christian is not going to impress or please the Lord.
The reason we set resolutions in the first place is because we know that, in some way, we want to do better. Select a resolution that you can imagine will increase your love for Jesus and your ability to rest in Him throughout the year.
For further reading:
4 Unique New Year’s Resolutions
Can Christians Make New Year’s Resolutions?
5 Spiritual New Year’s Resolutions: A Philippians Bible Study
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/Alvaro Moreno
