Grace full mama

I have always been adamantly against resolutions. Growing up, I watched people make them and never keep them. ” I’m going to quit smoking.” No, you’re not. If you were really serious you’d have quit in July and not waited for January. Gyms are chock full of new recruits, and I am guessing that the gym itself has it’s best month by far in January, followed shortly by a steep decline come February.

Why would someone wait to make a necessary change in their lives? I scoffed at the idea of a resolution, and even stated that my new year resolution was not to have one.

I think, part of the problem, is we have lost the very idea of what a resolution is. We have replaced it with a wishy washy ” I’m somehow going to accomplish next year what I feel like I failed miserably at this year, and somehow the new year is going to help me.”

“Resolution” is defined as 1. A firm decision to do or not to do something, or 2. the quality of being determined or resolute.

The other thing people like about new year resolutions is the concept of starting over, a wiped slate, the chance to do things over again.

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ” Lamentations 3:22-23

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” Isaiah 43:18-19

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Maybe we love new year resolutions because they hold an echo of a truth that we are all longing for? A new beginning, a chance to start over, forgiveness, strength.

Perhaps, we can use the new year as a way to remind us of what is available to us all the time. You see, we HAVE been made new. We are in a state of constant renewal, being transformed from glory to glory. We are under the new covenant.

If we try and be resolute in our lukewarm plans aside from the power of Jesus, our new year resolutions are demonstrably powerless. But if we treat the new year as a special time, a sacred reminder of what Jesus has done for us, and of our ability to become new, there is much power in it.

So, this year, I am doing things a little differently. I’m not exactly making resolutions, per se. I am, however focusing on my redemption. On the fact that I have been made new. I am asking Jesus to show me the way in the wilderness. I’ve started by asking him what he has for me in 2025. I am asking him to show me what I need to do, what he wants me to focus on. How can I best serve him?

That is a “resolution” that I know he can get behind.

I have a prayer journal that I write in somewhat sporadically. I just filled my last one, it took me 4 years. It is the most incredible book, full of both promises made and promises kept. It saw Jesus answering impossible prayers. I have a record of what he told me he would do, as well as the date that he did it. Big things, like telling me that I would have more children when it didn’t look possible at all. That book, and the practice of writing to Jesus and then recording what he says to me, have been the most faith building experience of my life.

So, when I was asking God what to do for 2025, writing in my new prayer journal was on his list. Giving up my self protection and trusting him to protect me is another one.

I have been made new. Tomorrow, I will be made new. I am living in the new covenant as a new creation. Possibilities, joy, hope, are before me like the ocean, horizonless and never ending.

So, if you want a resolution with some oomph behind it, ask Jesus what he has for you in 2025. What does he want you to focus on? What does he want you to release to him? Commit it to him, because he has never lost anything that has been committed to him.

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than we can ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Don’t limit your new year hopes to weight loss and the like. He is able to do more than you ever hoped or dreamed! Use the new year as an opportunity to present yourself as a living sacrifice to the Lord God, let him know that you are available, you are willing, you are his. Be willing to jump at his words. Be willing to walk with him daily, and watch what he can do. I promise you, you will be blown away.

May you be blessed to know him, to serve him, to honor him, and to hear him in 2025.