Why I Gave Up My New Year's Resolutions
It is now two weeks into the new year, which means that if you have kept your new year's resolution this far, you are doing really well. According to statistics, only 75% of new years resolutions survive the first week, and that number drops more and more every week after that.
Resolutions answer to our human need for growth, improvement, and change for the better. We strive for more exercise, more weight loss, more healthy choices. Better habits, better hobbies, better relationships. All this is because deep, deep down all we want is more hope, more peace, more satisfaction, more love.
I recently attended a meeting at my work that reviewed our employee satisfaction survey for the year. Based on the results, we created a plan to improve our unit over the next year. Overall, the general consensus was that we need better employee morale, which will come from replacing gossip and negative talk with more encouragement and positivism.
On the way home from the meeting, I gave myself a nice little pep talk about how I was going to be a source of positive encouragement in my workplace.
That same night at a devotional at church, the speaker talked about the human need for growth and how Jesus needs to be the center of it all. Then, I had an epiphany. My work place doesn't need more positivism, it needs more Jesus.
We don't need more resolutions in our lives, we need more Jesus. Our bodies don't need more exercise, water, and vegetables nearly as much as they need more Jesus. We don't need more positive qualities or more good works in our lives. Our families don't need more quality time, our children don't need more discipline, our organizations don't need more programs. Don't misunderstand - Those ideas are great and we do need to personally grow through the process called sanctification, but all this cannot occur apart from Christ. We need more of Him more than anything else.
Put Him in the center, and the process of sanctification will happen simultaneously with the help of the Spirit. But try to become a better person without the person of Jesus, and you'll never find what you are looking for.
That's why I was so excited last night when God opened some doors for spiritual conversation at work - because we need more Jesus in our homes, in our relationships, in our schools and workplaces. That's why I became one of the 30% who gave up their new year's resolutions by the second week of January. But actually, I didn't give up, I just changed my focus. In 2014 - and for the rest of my life - I want more and more of Jesus.
That's the only thing that will bring real hope, real peace, real joy, and real purpose. Real satisfaction is not found in my own vain attempts to be a better person. Real life - full life - is found only in you, Jesus.
Resolutions answer to our human need for growth, improvement, and change for the better. We strive for more exercise, more weight loss, more healthy choices. Better habits, better hobbies, better relationships. All this is because deep, deep down all we want is more hope, more peace, more satisfaction, more love.
I recently attended a meeting at my work that reviewed our employee satisfaction survey for the year. Based on the results, we created a plan to improve our unit over the next year. Overall, the general consensus was that we need better employee morale, which will come from replacing gossip and negative talk with more encouragement and positivism.
On the way home from the meeting, I gave myself a nice little pep talk about how I was going to be a source of positive encouragement in my workplace.
That same night at a devotional at church, the speaker talked about the human need for growth and how Jesus needs to be the center of it all. Then, I had an epiphany. My work place doesn't need more positivism, it needs more Jesus.
We don't need more resolutions in our lives, we need more Jesus. Our bodies don't need more exercise, water, and vegetables nearly as much as they need more Jesus. We don't need more positive qualities or more good works in our lives. Our families don't need more quality time, our children don't need more discipline, our organizations don't need more programs. Don't misunderstand - Those ideas are great and we do need to personally grow through the process called sanctification, but all this cannot occur apart from Christ. We need more of Him more than anything else.
Put Him in the center, and the process of sanctification will happen simultaneously with the help of the Spirit. But try to become a better person without the person of Jesus, and you'll never find what you are looking for.
That's why I was so excited last night when God opened some doors for spiritual conversation at work - because we need more Jesus in our homes, in our relationships, in our schools and workplaces. That's why I became one of the 30% who gave up their new year's resolutions by the second week of January. But actually, I didn't give up, I just changed my focus. In 2014 - and for the rest of my life - I want more and more of Jesus.
That's the only thing that will bring real hope, real peace, real joy, and real purpose. Real satisfaction is not found in my own vain attempts to be a better person. Real life - full life - is found only in you, Jesus.
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