“Making the Resolution You Want to Keep”
Most people around this time of year are thinking about goals. We make lists of New Year’s Resolutions that will better ourselves throughout the year. We plan to eat better, to exercise, to read more, to travel, be more positive, etc. Of course by the end of the year most of us have either failed to meet our goals or have forgotten about them entirely. Then when next year comes around we start the process all over again. Why do we fail to keep these goals? The problem for most of us is that they were goals that we didn’t really want to keep anyway. They are all good ideas but are ones that require time, commitment and energy that we don’t want spend. I recently saw a car commercial that played off of this idea. It showed a young family traveling the nation in their fancy new car and the slogan was, “This year, make the resolution that you want to keep.” The simple idea being that if the goals you set are fun (like traveling the nation in a new car) you are much more likely to keep them.
This idea got me thinking, why are we not making spiritual goals every year? And when we do, why do we so often fail to meet them? I have seen people set goals before for spiritual disciplines. We make goals to pray more, read our Bible daily and give more time serving. Most of the time we fail to meet these goals and when we do we are sure not to add them again to the list next year. Perhaps the problem is not the goal (I don’t think it’s asking very much to spend fifteen minutes a day praying and fifteen minutes a day reading the Bible). It’s not that goals are too difficult or unobtainable. The problem, I think, is one of desire. Unless our genuine desire is to be with Jesus, to get to know Him and draw closer to Him, the goal will be very difficult to keep. Yet, should this not be the desire of our hearts? If heaven is eternity in God’s presence why would we want to avoid being in his presence now?
My simple point is this: we should make some spiritual goals for ourselves, but before we do that, perhaps we should first examine our motives. For the next few weeks we are going to be going through the book of Genesis as a church. We will be handing out Bible reading plans each week to prepare you for the Sunday message. I would encourage you to commit to reading and reflecting on these passages each day, but not because it’s just the right thing to do or because your pastors have asked you to, but because you genuinely want to draw closer to Jesus. He has promised that if we draw near to him, he will draw near to us. He needs to be the desire of our hearts! This year, let’s set some spiritual resolutions, but let’s make them the resolutions that we want to keep!
Keep the Faith,
Matthew