Happy New Year 2024! And about resolutions…

By Elizabeth Prata

As I arise this morning, January 1, 2024, I reflect on the Lord’s faithfulness to me, and to all His children, His church, and to His word. For eons it has been so. He is the LORD and He does what He says. His promises are pure, holy, and eternal. 2023 was no different. I am grateful for his past faithfulness and promises of future faithfulness.

For we are a sanctuary of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17 Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean, And I will welcome you. 18 And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

2 Corinthians 6:16-18; 2 Corinthians 7:1

I was blessed in 2023 with being able to continue in the wonderful job He gave me which was working with children. I continued in my church, another blessing He has given me. I continued in my warm, clean, beautiful home, what a blessing. I had health, means, peace, punctuated by occasional happy surprises.

Aging issues are real. I noticed in 2023 that my mental faculties are dimmer, a bit blurry around the edges. I am not as alert after work as long into the evening as I used to be. I also cannot count on energy being present. Sometimes I have it after work, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I have it on the weekends, sometimes I don’t. Because of this, after school I tended to slide into less productivity for the Lord. Not reading my Bible as long, not researching as deeply, and sadly also, not reading as many books either secular or theological.

I have never been that successful with “New Year’s Resolutions”. Self-help usually fails. But when it’s a resolve to pursue holiness, to walk more closely with the Lord, to work toward glorifying Him through my earthly decisions, well now, that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish, isn’t it! I deeply desire to serve Jesus and please Him.

The Author of Hebrews 12:14, wrote, Pursue peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Be a slave to God Romans 6:22, because ‘the fruit you reap leads to holiness,’

This time of year people usually turn to Jonathan Edwards’ famous Resolutions, as well they should. Beginning in 1722 at age 19, Jonathan Edwards wrote 70 resolutions designed to help him live a holy life.

You can get them at Chapel Library online or sent to you for free, Here, John Piper, a student of Edwards, wrote about them in an article titled The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards. He reorganized the resolutions into groups of similar theme, if that helps.

Edwards was intent on pursuing God’s glory, spiritual good for himself, and the good of fellow man. He was only 19, but several of the resolutions spoke of the end of his life and his eventual death. For me, this one from Edwards kind of sums up the whole resolutions thing: #17,

Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.

Here at Ligonier in an article titled The Resolution Solution, Gene Edward Veith shows the difference between Edwards’ resolutions and the ones made by Benjamin Franklin who’d taken a cue from Edwards shortly after Edwards issued his. Franklin called his experiment of pursuing 13 virtues in 1726 “A bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection”. Gulp. We know where this is going to end, don’t we? Edwards looked to God. Franklin looked to self.

Edwards’ resolves “were focused on God’s glory, Scripture, heaven and hell, and Jesus Christ; Franklin’s were secular, pragmatic, and this-worldly, focused on becoming a good citizen and a successful businessman.”

How did it turn out for Franklin? Did he achieve ‘moral perfection’?

“Franklin kept a chart upon which he made check marks indicating his progress. When he found that he had problems keeping them all at once, he tried concentrating on one virtue at a time. When he found that he was still not making all that much progress, he eventually gave up the whole plan.“

Sound familiar? Yet Apostle Paul struggled, like we all do. He wrote,

For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.

21 I find then the principle that in me evil is present—in me who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:19-25).

Ruth in the Bible had made a resolution. Let’s look at her resolve:

But Ruth said, “Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. (Ruth 1:16).

Jonathan Edwards was impressed with Ruth’s resolve, writing in his essay “Ruth’s Resolution“,

I would particularly observe that wherein the Virtuousness of this her Resolution consists, viz. That it was for the Sake of the God of Israel, and that she might be one of his People that she was thus resolved to cleave to Naomi. … It was for God’s sake that she did thus, and therefore her so doing is afterwards spoken of as a virtuous behavior in her, Ruth 2:11,12, …She left her father and mother, and the land of her nativity, to come and trust under the shadow of God’s wings,

Our resolutions can be as specific and lengthy as Edwards’ or a simple as Ruth’s. But whatever you resolve, they should not be rested upon self, as Ben Franklin’s was. We should resolve things. We are told to walk, run, pursue God’s standards in obedience. We must ‘work out our salvation with fear and trembling.’ (Philippians 2:12). These are all active verbs. For us to be active we must decide, resolve, commit.

So whatever kind of resolve you have made looking into the New Year, if they are centered on God’s will, His glory, and His kingdom, He will be sure to bless you and sustain you. We don’t resolve to seek moral perfection, we know that cannot happen anyway until the glorification comes. But we pursue Jesus and work to become more like Him every day, day over day. We realize we can’t do it ourselves, even Paul couldn’t. If we look to Jesus always, and rely on the Spirit through prayer, growing in knowledge of His word, and surmounting sin, our victories whether large or small will increase.

Make your resolutions, then put one foot in front of the other, steeple your hands in prayer, keep the eyes focused upward, and walk on into 2024. That’s what I plan to do. Resolved.