Ah, the new year! Time for a fresh start. New beginnings. Bogus prophesies that don’t mean anything! (Seriously, watch out for those yahoos declaring, “This is the year of your breakthrough!”)
By now you’ve made a few New Years resolutions of your own. Perhaps you want to lose a few pounds or break a bad habit or learn a new skill. And then two weeks later when you epicly fail at your resolution, you’ll say, “Eh, there’s always next year.”
Is it a good idea for Christians to be making New Years resolutions? Sure, why not? There’s nothing wrong with setting personal goals. Just remember that whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31)! Er, unless your new years resolution is to diet, in which case don’t eat and don’t drink to the glory of God…?
Consider also these words from James 4:13-16. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit,’ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
Yeah, it’s straight-up evil to think that you control your destiny. But as Job understood, the days of a man are like the days of a hired hand. His days are few and pre-determined, and God has appointed our limits that we cannot pass (Job 14:1-6).
Jesus said not to be anxious about anything, what you shall eat or drink or wear. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you (Matthew 6:31-34), when we understand the text.
Special thanks to Nate Pickowicz, who let us pick on him in this video. Find his book on the five solas of the protestant reformation here.
Thank you also to Rob Stiles just for being cool.
