Keeping your resolutions in the New Year

Have you seen the usual claims about how New Year’s resolutions fail? Would you admit that you’ve made a few New Year’s resolutions and the promises you made to yourself failed to pan out?

Perhaps it’s not the promises that failed, but rather it is you who failed to follow through. It’s easy to blame the goals for not panning out, but if we are honest, it is we who fail to keep our own word to ourselves.

In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus told his hearers not to make vows since he knew that people are incapable of keeping them.

“But I say to you, do not make an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God; or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you are not able to make a single hair white or black. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’ <a firm yes or no>; anything more than that comes from the evil one,” (Matthew 5:34-37 Amplified Bible).

Perhaps instead of making resolutions that we know we cannot keep, it may be best to hand our resolutions over to the One who can help make them happen.

If it’s a bad habit we are trying to kick, or a pledge to accomplish a new goal this year, we can give those desires to the very God who is able to accomplish all things and make all things new.