Happy New Year! Have you ever noticed how, right after the holidays, all the fitness centers start advertising on television to cash in on all those who make New Year’s resolutions to get fit? For some reason the start of a new year inspires the world much more than just the start of a new month, or even a new week. Not that making healthy changes about anything is bad, but resolutions (as the world makes them) are the stuff of man-made moralism anyway. The right perspective to have is the one God gives us.
In Lamentations 2:22,23 we read, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (emphasis added). January 1st is not the first day to try to be a better person for God (again); it is the ten-thousandth day of failing and falling in our own efforts. And so is every day that comes after it. Make it your “resolution” this year to give up trying to be a Christian through your own efforts. Instead, isn’t it a far more delightful thought to simply remember the steadfast love of the Lord and surrender yourself before His generous mercies each new day, all year long?