How are You Doing with Your New Year's Resolutions?

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

How are you doing with your New Year’s Resolutions? I could definitely be doing better. Like most of you, I started off great! I spent consistent time in study and in prayer daily because I want His best for me. Still, once the cares and stresses of this life (i.e. parenting, work, family schedules, and household responsibilities) I neglected the former for the latter.

But thanks be to God, when he begins a work, He will finish what he starts! I don’t write today to make us feel guilty about not keeping our resolutions. In fact, I was encouraged as I meditated on this encouraging promise to keep on going. Yes, we may have fallen but we can still get back up. In this simple verse, we are first reminded that He began the good work. I truly believe that some of our resolutions are given to us by God. They are areas of our lives that He wants us to turn over to Him. After all, He does say in 1 Peter 5:7 “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” So, rather than worry about it, give it to him. He wants to take care of it. Secondly, He began the good work- which leads me to believe that it is a process. It may not happen overnight. It’s best for us to focus on progress instead of the end result. Then, the Apostle Paul reminds us that the work is taking place in us. Our outward attempts at losing weight, managing our time, relating better to others will end in frustration every time. We must spend time with Him so He can do the work in us. That means we must surrender to Him. Only then are we recognizing that He is the only one that can bring about lasting and true transformation. Finally, we can be encouraged that what He starts He will indeed complete. He is faithful! We can count on Him to come through. I don’t know about you but that really gets me fired up and overjoyed. Take heart, my brother and sister, He began the work, He will do the work when we turn it over to him, He will develop and nurture the work, and He will finish the work!

Be blessed!