From Resolving to Repenting
Have you developed your New Year's Resolution? Eveyone seems to always ask about it. Yet, no one hardly ever asks if you have accomplished the 2008 New Year's Resolution. Often, the resolution is the same from year to year. So why do we continue repeating this cycle of resolving without ever accomplishing? Is it just another ritualistic tradition of our culture? I hope not; New Year's Resolutions can be a meaningful part of your Christian growth, if understood and practiced as a discipline. Here's what I mean...
Most resolutions are regarding something in us which we wish to improve, e.g., lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more, read the Bible more, quit some addiction or habit, etc. All of these things are good goals to set. The problem, I think, is the way we set them and the way we go about trying to accomplish them. It's almost as if we set new rules or laws for ourselves then struggle against our own desires in trying to keep those rules. It doesn't matter if we state the rule as a prohibition or as a compulsion; we still put ourselves in the position of battling with ourselves. For example, if we resolve to no longer eat sweets (a prohibiting resolution), we constantly battle our own cravings. And, if we resolve to eat healthier (a compelling resolution,) we battle our own taste. Isn't this what man has always done when given a law? Law is our tutor teaching us of our need for Christ. Our unaccomplished resolutions of the past should teach us clearly that we cannot keep our own laws much less the Law of God.
I think we set resolutions this way, because our culture is always looking to a brighter future. We always imagine the future being better than the past. So, as we look upon the blank-slate of 2009, we imagine it being better than 2008 and us being better in it. However, a more Biblical approach would be to look at ourselves now, acknowledge today's sins, and commit to repentance. Rather than imagining a better, brighter future and hoping to become better within that future in regard to your particular resolution, acknowledge your sin associated with the resolution, confess it to God and resolve to repent leaning on His grace for empowerment. If you need to resolve to eat healthier, then acknowledge your current eating habits as a sinful indulgence in the satisfaction of fleshly desire, and repent in the gracious power of God. This approach to resolutions will totally transform the way you go about setting them as well as the strength in which you strive to accomplish them.
As for me, my best friend has always told me that I have all four of the deadly P's being a prideful, procrastinating, pessimistic perfectionist, and to some extend it is true. While I do recognize God's gracious and redemptive work in me lessening the effects of those sinful characteristics over the years, I do confess that my heart still has tendencies toward them. I discussed how my pride effects my speech in an earlier post, "Simple." So, one area of repentance for me is to simplify my speech and communicate more clearly. I've had to put down the book I was reading when the Lord brought this to my attention, The Soul Winner by Charles Spurgeon. I'm not procrastinating reading it, though; this is just how I read. I have to work through an issue like that before I continue on. As a way of disciplined repentance from my pride, I'm working on ways to communicate the complex more simply. Another area of repentance that needs my focus in 2009 is regarding procrastination. While I'm nowhere near the procrastinator I once was, I still waste a lot of time. I recently read a short biography of David Brainerd by John Piper, and I was impressed with how he redeemed the time even when he had no shortage of excuses to be lazy. As a way of disciplined repentance from my procrastination and waste of time, I'm restructuring my daily routines.
My prayer for you this New Year's is that God move you from Reflecting on your work to Recognizing His, from Planning your year to Praying over it and from resolving to do things differently to repenting from sin in the gracious power of God. May you have a blessed 2009 as you grow in grace, in the knowledge of God and in the application of the Gospel by the sanctifying work of the Spirit.
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