Out With the Old

Happy New Year!  It’s a day of new beginnings.  And, as a newscaster no doubt has observed, this day is an annual event.  Um, like yeah….

As the same newscaster will tell you, this day also is about new beginnings,  There are firm  resolutions about getting in better physical shape, losing weight, saving more money, and getting more sleep.  Those resolutions all take, well, resolve.  There are goals to meet, attitudes to adjust, behaviors to change, and support systems to build or to find.

These resolutions deal with changes in the outer person.  There are inner, spiritual matters to handle, too.   Behaviors and attitudes reveal a lot about the inner person.  We have experiences, self-image, a set of personal values and mental models of family patterns that can help or hinder us.  Over the years, people have told me about their history of behavior change or value shift.  There always have been struggles to be the new person that a resolution may demand.  I ask people, “Did you pray about these resolutions?  Did you pray through the changes?”  Often, people don’t have answers to these kinds of questions.  After all, these are perceived as personal battles, not spiritual battles—which they indeed are.

Along those lines, over the years I have known very few people who made spiritual resolutions to keep in the new year.  Few have said, “I am resolving to pray more often, and more intently.”  Very few have promised to read the Bible more regularly, asking for recommendations about study aids.  No one has ever said to me, “I resolve to attend church more regularly” (which probably was good not to promise to the priest).

Yet the resolutions to strengthen spiritual life actually can help a person to deal then with practical issues day to day.  Spiritual strength can give us the ability to say “yes” to the good patterns and choices, and “no” to the choices that will set us back.  More than that, we have the power of the Holy Spirit to draw us closer to Christ and to the strength that comes only from God.

As we all turn the page into a new year, may God help us to move to a new stage in our walk in these divine paths.  May all of us resolve to pray more, work more, and give more to spread the dominion of God.