The Problem with New Year’s Resolutions

Christian Brothers and Sisters, I think we are guilty of falling into a trap when it comes to the New Year. While we mean well and aim for intentionality, I think we can fall prey to being ensnared by the worldly focus of recreating ourselves anew every January. Should Christians even make New Year’s resolutions? What is the focus we should be having as another year begins?  Is there a focus found in God’s Word that we should keep throughout the New Year?

A Shift in Society’s Focus Has Taken Place…

In recent years, I have seen a focus shift, and perhaps even a shift of purpose, of what a New Year brings, and I wonder if you have seen it too? This new focus actually has it’s very own catchphrase:

“New Year, New You.”

So let me get this straight, as the New Year dawns not only is every mom staring into the vast sea of time commitments begging for margin, WE actually have to metamorphose and become a NEW person?

I just turned 44,  and for all y’all in your thirties or younger, hear my heart: the forties are the best kept life secret! Finally you can rest with confidence in who God made you to be, standing tall on the peak of Mt. Identity, maybe with a preferred snack in hand.

The only change I want is that which is prompted by the Holy Spirit for my sanctification.

Not only am I too far down the road, I don’t think the actual focus of a myself becoming a new me is right thinking for Christians (who have already been made new according to 2 Cor. 5:17).

Here’s what I am suggesting: We should throw out this newfangled focus! Even better, we should recognize and call this “New Year, New You” business what it really is: a trap!

God DOES give us a focus, and it’s one we should keep each year!

What Should Our Focus Be as Christians?

Let’s remember the focus God has given us already. And isn’t it so loving that He has given us a focus?

Take a gander at the “anti-worry chapter” as I call Matthew 6, where Jesus tells us plainly what we should be focusing on:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (New International Version, Matthew 6:33).”

Our focus is thus, “the Kingdom” and not ourselves.

The ever increasing worldly focus of self has been festering since Eden. Seeing whatever we think looks and seems good for us and falling for the trap because we deem it worthy when God forbids it.

However, if we focus on what God tells us to, His Kingdom, then we can avoid this trap and feel a lot less inward and outward pressures to perform or, rather maintain, our resolutions to change ourselves. We will study more about what exactly “seek first the kingdom” means, but first let’s see together the problem that self-made resolutions present.

The Main Problem with Resolutions

With the mindset of resolutions comes a call to change and a focus inward as we have already seen. The issue here is, if Christians are constantly shifting their focus on to what they can do for themselves, then we get off target and off track from our ultimate mission.

Basically, you are giving yourself a new mission with each resolution. We already have a focus, and we also already have a mission. Again, we hear directly from Jesus:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20).”

Christians, let us not forget our business: we are disciple-makers. We are truth sharers.

We are prepared to give an answer for the hope we have (1 Peter 3:15).

If we are so focused and set on the changes we can make for ourselves, then how are we going to make any Kingdom change that the Holy Spirit would avail?

Now, do you see the trap?

What Does “Seek First His Kingdom” Mean?

What are we really seeking when we are making resolutions? Honestly, I don’t think we want a fully new person to emerge, but maybe a better version of ourselves, right?

But what God is offering if we seek Him is: “His righteousness” and “all these things will be given to you as well” is the better, no, best version. God’s promises are best, not our own ideas, why?

Because of the omnis of who He is: Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnipotent, and because He is sovereign.

So we trust Him by seeking Him first.

Sidenote: studying theology (the nature of God) will make this ever more apparent.

Timing is Key

Seek “first” means before anything and everything you do, you seek the Lord through prayer and through His Word.

• Before you plan, pray.
• Before you decide, pray.
• Before you go anywhere or begin the thing, pray.
• Before you scroll social, pray.
• Before you get out of bed, pray!

Give the Lord the first fruits of your heart and time. Give Him your BEFORES!

The priority is making the TIME to seek, not the actual priorities you are trying to plan.

There is confusion about which saint prayed for 3 hours at the start of their day, whether it was Martin Luther or Mother Teresa or both, the point is: prayer, communion with God, was the priority, the daily constant. It should be ours also. As pastors say all over the world, prayer is not the fall back or contingency, it is the direct line and first line to God!

Remembering God’s aseity, His omni qualities, that He is the “Creator” should lead us to realize that if He has actually created the day or year you are to have, should we not seek Him first about it?

Use the natural time transitions as reminders to pray. And perhaps see interruptions as prayer reminders as well.

How Should We Pray?

We should look again to our example of Jesus, who prayed before and after everything. It was almost like He was briefing and debriefing with His Father at every turn. He might have prayed more than actually doing the things. I said, “might!” But that is a thought to ponder.

He gives us the prayer, “Our Father” in Matthew 6:9-13; this is to be our model for what to pray for.

Praying Scripture is always a reliable, well lit path to travel on. There are too many verses to list about the Word and how God works through it. Since we know our focus and our mission, we can pray that God would give us wisdom, strength, and a willing heart to carry it out. That the Holy Spirit would equip us to “seek first the Kingdom” and “go therefore and make disciples…”

Pray, Stay, and Trust (The Final Step)

Once you have prayed and stayed in the Word, the next step is to trust God in it. Trusting looks like a person continuing forward until God halts and redirects them.

When I was first a new believer as well as a new mom, I was a member of a young mothers’ group through my church. Prayer was a confusing concept to me to be honest, having grown up Catholic. Unknowingly, my idea of prayer was, in the words of my pastor, more of a “punishment or a penance” instead of a tool for talking and communing with Our Father.

One of the fellow mothers had delivered a child with Trisomy 18. This dear and precious son lived a few moments only to transfer from his mother’s arms into the arms of Jesus.

As we were in prayer over this grieving family, our leader gently mentioned, “They had prayed for God’s will to be done.”

A realization came over my mind: they prayed, then they trusted God with the results.

This family had sought first the Kingdom, and trusted their Father with their precious son.

To this day this powerful testimony of prayer and trust over the very biggest thing in your life, your child’s life, has largely shaped how I see God’s sovereignty over all.

Perhaps we should focus first on the kingdom, having only this resolution in mind: “…yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).