Resolutions for wimps

New Years Day. The #1 promise breaking day of the year. Or at least the birth of a promise broken. On this day people all over the world make promises they probably never will fulfill. They range from weight loss to drinking less to exercising more to watching your language to...and the hits keep coming. I hate New Year's Resolutions. Here's why. It offends my navel. Ya, my navel.

New Year's resolutions give people world wide permission to turn the focus of their lives inward and change one thing about themselves that they do not like. Me, me, me. What about what God likes? Who cares whether you like what you are changing or not? Why not ask God what He likes and what He wants to be changed in you. Maybe that is how you approach New Year's Day. Great! So what took you so long to get there? Why were you waiting for New Years? Why not make the change at Thanksgiving? Or Memorial Day? Or now!

"Resolutions" should be a regular part of our every day. That's how I read Ephesians 5:18. Don't get drunk (read 'controlled by') on wine, but be filled (read 'controlled by')with the Holy Spirit. The tense of the verb suggests this is a daily occurrence. The control of the Spirit requires us to be making "resolutions" each day and fulfilling them to God. I may not want to do, it may not feel good or meet my self centered, navel gazing needs, but they will meet God's. Be filled, be filled, be filled with God's Spirit. His control. Not just at the start of the New Year to be lost by the time June kicks in, but every moment of every day for every holiday. See Jonathan Edwards for an example of a godly man who took resolution making seriously. Not for weight loss, but sin loss.

I hope the Spirit's control this year is greater than last year's. Not for your sake, but for God's. To Him be the glory, the honor and the praise. Amen.