A good New Year’s Resolution

December 26, 2008 · Filed Under general · Comment 

With 2009 just around the corner, a lot of people start talking about “New Year’s Resolutions”. It those promises we make to ourselves to, like:

  • Lose weight
  • Stop smoking
  • Get out of debt
  • Start exercising
  • Go to church
  • Drink less

Or, maybe it’s a time to set some personal goals, like:

  • Write a book
  • Run a marathon
  • Make a short film
  • Start painting
  • Try sculpting
  • Start an Internet business
  • Go back to school

I’ve made many of these resolutions before, and I’ll probably make many of them again. But something has really got me jazzed about 2009. It’s going to be an exciting year! I believe we are incredibly ripe with opportunity for this coming year.

So, how do we move forward? What are some good, Godly new year’s resolutions? Where do I start?

I think the first, most important step is learning to look forward, not back. Your 2008 may be filled with mistakes, regret, discouragement, and failures. And, you want to enter into 2009 with hope, faith and strength. You can!

I came across this promise while running the Whiterock marathon two weeks ago. It was on the back of lady’s shirt as an encouragement to other runners. It simply said, “Forgetting what’s behind, I press on.”

I knew the scripture. I had read it before. So, this week, I pulled it up in my Bible program and read all of it:

    I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven. (Philippians 3:12b-14)

I just love that. Here’s Paul–the writer of the New Testament, the most devoted of Jews, a follower of Christ to his death–and he writes, “I am still not all I should be.” He knows he hadn’t arrived. He wasn’t perfect. He was still working, moving, striving for the goal. So, what did he do?

He focused all his energy on this one thing–forgetting what was behind, and pressing on towards the goal.

This is my New Year’s Resolution: to forget about the mistakes, the failures, the sin, and the regrets from 2008 and focus on what Jesus wants me to be in 2009.

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