New Years Resolutions

I am grateful to the one who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful in putting me into ministry, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor, and an arrogant man.
1 Timothy 1:12-13 (NET)

Yes, I know its January 2, but can we go back one day to January 1? You know, the day we all make New Years Resolutions (NYR), the day we say we are going to turn a new leaf and exercise more, or eat less, or be more patient, or whatever. But somehow those NYRs never seem to last, do they? I definitely notice this at the gym. The first two weeks of the new year and that gym is packed, by the beginning of February, the population at the gym has dropped by at least 25%, and by March it is back to what is was on December 31. We do this all the time to ourselves, and then when we don't fulfill our NYR, we start beating ourselves up..."see, you couldn't even do this!" or "if you can't do this, what makes you think you can do that?" or "see, you're just a loser, they all said you'd never last." Those words bite to the very core of our being...and the funny thing is, we allow it! We allow those words to eat at us, infect us, deprive us of sleep, make us agitated, etc. The Apostle Paul had every reason to think those same things and more, I mean the man killed Christians before he became one. From our point of view he had every right to be down on himself. But that isn't what he did. He chose to believe that Jesus cleaned the slate in his life, he chose to believe that Jesus really did die for him and that he now has new life! Paul, instead of beating himself up over past mistakes, chose life and went on to write two thirds of the New Testament. We have a choice. We can either continue to put ourselves down, and basically choosing death, OR we can choose life...choose the life Jesus died for. Yes we all made mistakes, you and I, and yes we will continue to make mistakes, and yes some of them may be whoppers, but Jesus died for it all so you don't have to continue to beat yourself up.

Take Away...

When you fall short of that NYR you made, instead of beating yourself up over it, say "yes, I didn't make this one, but that's okay, I'm no less a person of that, in fact I'm a better person because Jesus loves me!"