Home > Blog > A New Year’s Resolution Worth Repeating

A New Year’s Resolution Worth Repeating

By Michael Kelley

Here we are, the first week of the new year. And because we are, most of us are considering resolutions. There are the standard promises of weight loss, gym membership, more reading, and a host of others. Chances are, you’ve made one of these resolutions before. Maybe it worked out, and maybe it didn’t. If it didn’t work out, then perhaps you’re redoubling your efforts this year. Maybe you have some kind of plan that will make this year different. And maybe, because you do, you are repeating the same resolution you’ve done before.

Maybe it will work after all. But if you’re a Christian, there is one resolution you should indeed repeat over and over again. There is one thing you need this year as much as you did last. There is one thing that you didn’t graduate and move on to something else from:

Preach the gospel this year.

Preach it to yourself and preach it to others. Preach it to the Christian and non-Christian, to the one who has believed for decades and to the one that is still considering. Tell the old, old story of a Savior who came from glory, and gave His life on calvary to save a wretch like me. Do it again.

And when we’ve done it for a year, we turn around and do it again.

It’s for the child and the adult, for the student and the retiree. Preach the gospel both inside and outside yourself. Take these words from the Apostle Paul to heart at the first of this year:

Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you—unless you believed for no purpose. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received… (1 Corinthians 15:1-3).

Before Paul goes on to articulate the core tenets of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that which is indeed most important, notice a key word in verse 1:

Brothers.

These people were not pagans. These people were not outside the faith. These were brothers and sisters in the Lord, and yet Paul did the thing he did when they were still dead in their sin: He preached the gospel to them. That’s because, as he articulates, this is the message we have taken our stand on and are being saved by, right now. This is the message we need to hear in 2021 just like we did in 2020. This is what’s most important for our forgetful hearts and lethargic souls.

Make a resolution, then, but let it be a lasting. Resolve to do the same thing you did yesterday and then to it again tomorrow. Preach the gospel over and over again until faith becomes sight.

Home > Blog > 3 Reasons to Be Thankful God Does Not Make Resolutions

3 Reasons to Be Thankful God Does Not Make Resolutions

By Michael Kelley

There are apparently some strong opinions out there about whether it’s right or not to make New Year’s Resolutions. Those who benefit from the practice argue that it’s merely a matter of setting goals, and without a goal, it’s impossible to see if you are really making progress toward something. So making a resolution in regard to your physical, financial, or spiritual state is an act of discipline that helps you follow through.

Those that don’t like resolutions say that doing so is either just setting yourself up for failure, or else a way of introducing spiritual pride and achievement into your life. Better than having a goal is simply to commit yourself to a set of actions and continue day by day in it.

So who’s right? Probably both in a sense. For my part, I’ve found a lot of value over the years in taking the time around the new year to look back on the year before and then trying my best to chart a course forward in some specific ways. But I’m certainly not going to criticize someone who has good reasons not to do the same.

So rather than advocating for the practice of resolutions or fighting against it, I wonder (at the risk of writing a cheesy post) if we could consider the act of resolutions from a different vantage point. Specifically, remembering in all our resolution-making that God does not do the same. And we should be thankful that He does not for at least these three reasons:

1. God has nothing to improve on.

One of the reasons we make New Year’s resolutions is because we want to improve on something in our lives. We want to eat better, exercise more, or spend less, and the reason we want to do that is that we are currently dissatisfied with our current practice in that area. Not so with God.

God has nothing to improve on, not because He is prideful, but because He is perfect, and thank God He is. Thank the Lord that every year God does not have to consider how He could improve upon the way He is governing the affairs of the universe, because this year, like every year, is held in His hands. He still holds the times and the seasons just as He always has, and will continue to execute His plans and desires in just the right way and at just the right time.

2. God has nothing to make up for.

Another reason we might make a resolution this year is because we have recognized that we have been, through the past, letting people down. We might not have spent enough time with our families. Or we might not have controlled our budget. Or we might not have been available to our friends. And in the new year, we want to try and make amends for all the balls we’ve dropped. Not so with God.

God has nothing to make up for because in His perfection, God has not made any mistakes in the past year. This can be a tough thing to swallow, and at the risk of being insensitive, it’s nonetheless true that God does not have to apologize for any of His judgments over the past year. He has done the right thing whether or not we yet recognize it as being right.

3. God’s time is not running out.

One final reason we might make a New Year’s resolution is because we sense that our time is growing short. That might be because our kids are steadily moving toward college, and so we know we have a limited amount of time left with them at home. Or it might be that we see a relative rapidly aging and we know that we might have potentially celebrated our last Christmas with them. Or it might be that we are getting close to retirement age and we know that we have to make some drastic changes in our lifestyles in order to continue on. Not so with God.

God is as He has been as He will be. His time is not short, and has never been short. Quite the opposite – God plays the long game. He plays it with history and He plays it in our lives. In history, we can trust that no matter how much it might look like things are spinning out of control, God is playing the long game and is bending the arc of redemptive history toward the recognized rule and reign of Jesus. And in our lives, He is playing the long game to get us to the people He wants us to be through all our joy and pain, gain and loss. God’s time is not short. It’s just right.

So make a New Year’s resolution this year friend. Or don’t make one. But as you are making your choice, remember that God is not. And be thankful He isn’t.

Home > Blog > Resolve to Trust God

Resolve to Trust God

By Michael Kelley

I’m a resolution guy. Making and keeping track of resolutions annually helps me track my forward progress in certain areas of life.

So every January, I evaluate my resolutions from the previous year and make new ones. For some time now, I’ve been dividing these resolutions into categories: financial, spiritual development, family, and ministry.

The New Year provides a good occasion to look back at how the previous year shaped up in these categories and then evaluate what the next step might be.

But here’s the thing about making resolutions like that: Often when you look back, you’re disappointed by your lack of effort in the previous year.

You look at those goals—those resolutions—and you think to yourself, I really could have saved more. I could have exercised more. I could have read more. If only I had tried a little harder.

Then, when you look forward to what you want to accomplish and put your time and energy toward the next year, you do so with the attitude of, I’m really going to try harder and get it this year.

New Perspective

Take a physical goal, for example. Let’s say that you want to lose 20 pounds. So you resolve that you’re going to try hard to do it. You try hard by throwing away all the leftover Christmas cookies in the house. You try hard by looking up all the low-calorie recipes you can find.

You try hard by signing up for a gym membership and purchasing a second alarm clock you set and place across the room so when you turn off the first one, you still have to get up because the other one is ringing. Effort abounds, and you do try hard.

Or you do for a while. Then you take a day off. You eat a little more. You find a reason not to follow through, and slowly but surely, your resolve weakens and your effort wanes.

The problem with trying hard like that is you run out of steam. Always. But what if there was a better way to try? This year, I want to try hard, but I want to try hard at the right thing. I want to try hard at that which God prizes in His people. I’m going to try hard to believe.

We often make the mistake of thinking that resolutions are about willpower. Though certainly that’s a big part of it, the truth is every decision we make is, at some level, driven and maintained by faith. What we believe will in the end determine what we do. Think about it again in terms of the diet.

In the case of losing 20 pounds, instead of just trying harder to eat right and go to the gym, I’m going to focus my primary effort elsewhere. I’m going to attack the root of the issue at the faith level.

Instead of focusing my effort on the weight, I’m going to try hard to believe my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. I’m going to try hard to believe God will empower me to honor Him with my body. I’m going to try hard to believe He’s my sustenance—not another bag of potato chips.

There’s a huge difference. One is centered on sweat; the other is centered on faith. One lifts up the power of humanity; the other lifts up the power of God. One is about me; the other is about the Gospel.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be asking, “Why can’t I try hard enough to accomplish the things I have resolved to do?” Maybe we should instead be asking what we should be trying hard to believe about God and His work in our lives. Perhaps it’s that belief—that faith—that can result in the change we need.

This year, resolve to try hard, but to try hard at the right thing. Faith is the center of all things—even trying harder.