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Jan. 12, 2008
New Year's Resolutions: Simplified
I've always been torn between wanting to insist New Year's Resolutions are silly, and wanting to make several myself. I mean, why only promise to improve yourself once a year? Don't we have struggles and imperfections we are dealing with all year long? On the other hand, traditionally speaking, it is the time of year where people do give much more serious thought to changing and starting fresh. There's something about opening that new, blank calendar that is inspiring. It feels like a clean slate. A BIG clean slate!
So, what do you resolve to change? The list can be so long! How do you pick? Some people can quickly pick one "big ticket item," and that's it. I used to get carried away and end up with an overly ambitious list of 20 or more things, some big, some little, half of which I forgot by halfway through January. Then I ended up feeling guilty, frustrated, and inadequate, and settled quickly back into having "just another year."
But, God has been growing me, and I feel like this year is going to be different. I am only making one New Year's Resolution.
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:35-40
Based on that verse, I only need one New Year's Resolution:
1. To love God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
God places this commandment as the greatest, because He knows that if you keep this commandment, everything else "hangs" on this--everything else falls into place. Everything. Even everything on your New Year's Resolution list.
So, how can we keep this one resolution to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind? It doesn't require trips to the gym, special diet menus, reorganizing your whole home. It only requires a minute of fervent prayer each time the resolution comes to mind:
Dear God, please help me to love you with all my heart, soul, and mind. Please help me to love you more.
This is God's will. If we pray it, He will give it.
And then just think of the blessings we will reap. As you grow to love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, you will grow in your longing to please Him and serve Him. Your ears will tingle for the slightest commandment that you can obey to please the One you love so much. Your eyes will greedily digest the Word of God as you look for ways to learn about the One you love and how to please Him. You will develop those "ears that hear," and you will be not just a hearer of the Word, but a doer. You will begin to be a keeper of God's law, you will begin to live in His will, and your life will reap blessing and happiness.
Take a look at this amazing verse of scripture:
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29:18
Every year, we like to start off the New Year with "vision." That's why we make resolutions. We have a goal. We imagine a better life, a happier life, a more peaceful life, a more productive life, a healthier life. Goals are good! God says right there in this verse that where there is no vision, the people perish.
However, don't miss the treasure. The word "but" in this verse tells you how to make sure you have vision and don't perish, and are happy. The word "but" in this verse reveals to us a comparison of two opposite states:
A person who has no vision and who perishes is the opposite of the person who keeps the law and is happy.
So, if you have no vision, what should you do? Keep the law!
If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15
Now see how this falls into place: The greatest commandment is to love God, and then if you love Him, you will keep His commandments, and if you keep His commandments, you will be happy (and have vision and not perish).
Did you know that you cannot have Godly vision unless you love God first and it is your deepest longing to please Him and keep His commandments.
You see, when we love ourselves more than we love God, any vision we have is tainted and selfish. We will set goals, even in the name of God, but they most likely will not be the goals that God has for us at the time. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
When we don't love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, our vision is clouded. Our goals will be set in "our favor," --as in, goals that we feel will make us happier. Goals that make sense to us, that sound good, that sound godly, and appear godly. But God's vision is almost always different. Many times in my life, I have outlined visions and goals that have failed, even though they were goals to attain godly things. They failed because they were not in line with God's vision for me--God's revelation for me. I had Him tuned out and me tuned in. When, in frustration, I would finally turn to God for help, He would reveal His true vision for me, and the true areas where I needed to work and grow, which were not the areas I would pick. Not the direction I would choose. God picks the tough areas--the areas we subconsciously avoid. Our blind spots. He loves us. He really wants us to grow! In order to do that, He must move us out of our comfort zones.
We need to grow in our weakest areas, yet those are the areas most painful for us to face. We try to resolve to do something about our "symptoms," but as humans, we do not have the vision to see into our own hearts and realize that our bad eating habits, our bad spending habits, our anger, our unruly or rebellious children, our troubled marriage, our clutter, our disorganization--they're all just symptoms. When we muster up our own "vision," we often can only see our symptoms. When we let God give us vision, He can see right into our hearts and give us the vision we need to make changes at the very core of our soul. He can clear up the cloudiness, the confusion, and the struggles. Yes, it means changing in some ways that aren't comfortable, but it also means changing in ways that are effective and truly do lead to happiness.
That's why the love part--the greatest commandment--is crucial. If you truly love someone, you will go through whatever discomfort necessary to change for them.
So, if you love God the most, more than any other person or any other thing--if you truly can come to love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind--then you will be willing to yield to His vision for you, and willing to do anything He asks to make change in your life. You will long to keep any commandment you know He wants you to keep. You will gladly go through the discomfort, and do whatever it takes to please the One you love! Just think of the bride who was motivated to lose 10 pounds for her wedding day. In her whole life, that may be the most successful time of weight loss. Why? She has a vision and a goal, but what is the motivation? Love for her new groom--yes. She wants to look beautiful for him and please him on their wedding day. She wants the pictures to be perfect, the dress to be perfect. This is a small picture of how, when we truly love God the way He commands us to love Him, we will be willing to go through any discomfort to grow and change.
When I meet my Bridegroom in heaven, I want to be beautiful to Him! He's not going to look at my outside, but He is going to look on my heart. I will do anything to prepare for that wedding day!
But I want to explain more of how keeping God's commandments relates to having vision and life. If you keep the commandments, you will have vision. It will all start to fall into place. Your eyes will be opened. You will see. You will see how keeping God's commandments will help you, little by little, become the person you have always envisioned yourself to be. Your anger and bitterness will be replaced with forgiveness and love. Your lack of self-control will be replaced with patience and restraint. Your cluttered disorganization will become peace and order. Depression will lift as you take your eyes off yourself and focus on serving God. Your finances will improve as you make choices to please the One you love. Your marriage will become blissful, your children will grow in the Lord, you will become healthier... it will all fall into place.
If you make this one resolution, to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and you begin praying that one simple prayer all day every day, you will be transformed. You will start living for him day to day, and minute to minute.
Don't be surprised when you pray, "God, help me to love you more," and then you are gently prompted to show this love to God, pleasing Him by speaking lovingly to a child instead of reacting in anger. Or, you are prompted to clean out some clutter, or even just choose something to eat that is more pleasing to the One you love. Little by little, the clouds will lift, and you will be transformed. You will be living life to please the One you love, and all your vision will fall into place.
Simplify your New Year's resolutions. Just make this one.
Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Try it, and you will see. If you were to let God write your New Year's Resolutions, and you asked God to pick just one thing for you to work on, I am confident this would be it (it is for me!). He said so right in the Bible--this is the first and great commandment. If you don't have this one nailed, it is futile to work on anything else! And then, when you do start working on this one--everything else automatically starts to work. Amazing!
But not too amazing for God! His ways are awesome. |
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