Monday, January 6, 2014

MAKING 2014 SIGNIFICANT:BE RESOLVED!


At the beginning of the new year many of us make resolutions. Sadly, by the time  the year ends many of us have failed to keep them or have forgotten the ones that we made. As a result, there is a kind of cynicism that lies within many of us in regards to our attitudes about resolutions. So many never even consider the idea of making resolutions.  

I believe that resolutions are good things and necessary things if we are going to grow and progress in our lives here on earth.  A year is a defined time frame long enough to make progress on difficult things and short enough to provide some incentive to keep moving. A resolve is not a vague intention, like “one of these days I’m going to get that garage cleaned” or “I’m going to read the Bible through this year,” but without any clear plan to do it. Resolves are intentions with strategies attached to them. You don’t just hope something is going to happen; you are planning to make it happen. To be resolved is to be determined. 

I think of Daniel who when tested to eat the kings food and drink the kings wine we read, "But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank…" (Daniel 1:8)

This is the crucial event of his life. Although it might not have appeared important at the time, what Daniel did shaped the next 60 years. Why do you think Daniel did what he did? Daniel's reluctance to eat the emperor's food was religious in origin, because the writer uses the word "defile" (1:8). This word strongly implies that he saw the issue as one of moral or spiritual pollution. It was not just that he was vegetarian or that he had trouble adjusting to a foreign diet. This was an issue of religious conscience for him. To eat of the king's food would have been, for Daniel, to compromise his personal holiness in some way.

Verse 8 says that he "resolved" That is, he made up his own mind. The Hebrew phrase suggests an inner wrestling with conscience that resulted in personal determination to make a stand of principle on the matter. He couldn't decide for anyone else, but he decided for himself what he would and would not do. And that changed everything. Daniels commitment preceded his achievement. Daniel made up his mind, and his three closest friends decided to join him.

Resolves are good because  they’re Biblical. The apostle Paul speaks much about being resolved in his life: 

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2) 
“It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death." (Philippians 1:20) 
“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24) 

He also regularly exhorted others about being resolved: 

“When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast resolve” (Acts 11:23). 
“Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way” (Romans 14:13) 

The Greek word translated "resolved" means to plan or will or purpose to do something; in these cases, something that is of eternal value. I think it is so important to have a compass that points the way that points the way for your life.

Every Christian who is going to really grow, progress in their sanctification, and not waste their life needs to be resolved. To be resolved is to strive for and pursue a God-centered, God-ward; God-intoxicated; God-centered, God-driven; God-exalting; God-entranced life. To be resolved teaches me the importance of keeping myself regularly accountable to God, to others, and to myself in this so noble pursuit. Finally, to be resolved makes me prayerfully dependent upon my Lord Jesus Christ to help me by His grace to live out and fulfill my resolves. Otherwise I know in my corruption and weakness they will never happen for me. 

The apostle Paul himself prayed for God's help to enable the Church of Thessalonica to fulfill every good resolve. “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. “(2 Thessalonians 1:11)

No matter where any of you are in your lives, none of us has arrived. There is so much more spiritual maturity yet to be realized. There is so much more that God can do in and through us. 

Would you be intentional to write down your own resolves? I use the word intentional because I believe that it is a discipline that we must practice in order to become a regular practice in our lives. I challenge every one of you to make an effort to incorporate this into your life this week.Would you share with someone who will love you, encourage you, pray for you, and hold you accountable to earnestly pursue your resolves?

Watch what begins happening in the kind of person you become. This week I pray that you would take the time to ask yourself before God: 

How do I want to live?

What is my purpose in life?

What kind of person do I want to be?

Ask God to help you follow Paul’s example. Ask for God for the grace to give you a desire to grow, to give you a set of resolves for your own life, and for the power to live out these resolves every day.

Resolved in 2014,
Pastor Bill