Resolved: Not to Make Any New Year’s Resolutions

Congratulations to me! I’ve succeeded in keeping the one resolution that I made at the start of 2025: I resolved not to make any other resolutions. Success!

 

Most resolutions are like ice cubes in the hot sun. They don’t last long. They’re the paving material for the roads to good intentions and wishful thinking. ‘I’m going to lose weight.’ ‘I’m going to exercise regularly.’ ‘I’m going to get out of debt.’ ‘I’m going to start reading my Bible.’ ‘I’m going to travel more this year.’ ‘I’m going to become a kinder person.’ If you’re a resolutions maker, you can probably add to that list.

 

Unfortunately, when it comes to resolutions, it’s not the thought that counts. They lack staying power, and as soon as you break a resolution that’s it. Game over. ‘I knew I couldn’t do it!’

 

Spending consistent time in the 
Scriptures is a worthwhile goal.

Does that mean we should forsake all efforts to make personal changes and strive for improvement? Not at all. But I’d suggest that instead of all-or-nothing resolutions, set goals instead. Use them as targets to aim toward. Some are reachable very quickly; others require perseverance over the long haul – a year or even longer.

For example: Instead of making a resolution to always eat right and radically change your lifestyle to become fit, set a goal. One that’s reasonable, measurable and attainable. That way, as the adage goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. 

 

Years ago, a friend showed me the value of setting goals for different areas of life. Such as physical, mental, financial, relational, vocational, and spiritual. At the time my family had considerable debt, so we established a workable strategy and goals for digging ourselves out. As Proverbs 22:7 observes, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” It took time but we eventually were able to extricate ourselves from financial servitude.

 

I’ve consistently set goals for other areas of my life, but perhaps most important has been the spiritual. What kinds of goals can you set for that? Reading through the Bible in one year is one I’ve been able to achieve a number of times. If you set a resolution, “I’m going to read the Bible every day,” and miss even once you might conclude, ‘Why even try?’ However, if you set it as a goal, even if you miss a day or two you can always catch up when you have more time. There are a variety of schedules can be useful for doing that.

 

Why bother reading through the Bible? The first of the Psalms speaks about this: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked…. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2). If we don’t determine to focus on God and His Word, our minds are sure to find something else to focus on.

 

Scripture memory has proved to be another very helpful goal, seeking to memorize Bible passages that had special meaning for me. King David wrote, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to Your word…. I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9-11).

 

We find a similar principle in Joshua 1:8, which God spoke to Joshua as he was preparing to succeed Moses as leader of the Israelites: “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” We live in a world that bombards us with messages contrary to what the Lord teaches us through the Scriptures. Memorizing and meditating on the Word of God helps us to cultivate thinking that aligns with His will for us.

 

A much broader spiritual goal might be to know the Lord better and, in the process to become more and more like Him. For this reason, years ago I adopted the first portion of Philippians 3:10 as presented in the Amplified Bible for my own purpose or mission statement. In effect, the apostle Paul was making this his life goal: “That I may know Him, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly.”

 

Obviously, this isn’t something to be accomplished through a one-time resolution; it’s a lifelong goal. As Paul stated just two verses later, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12).

As we proceed into another new year, filled with uncertainties, challenges, opportunities, and unexpected twists and turns, I hope you choose to set some definitive goals – perhaps very different from mine – that will enable you to grow and flourish in becoming and doing whatever the Lord puts before you. Happy New Year!  

How Are You Coming Along With Your Resolutions?

Well, we’re already two months into the new year. The virus is still with us, but now we have vaccines. We have a new President, but some politicians and factions in our country are still aggressively hating the former President. We’re still wearing masks, social distancing and washing our hands – at least most of us are. So 2021 is still looking suspiciously like 2020.

 

Which brings us to the question at hand: How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? Have you made the changes you intended to make? Are you making progress on losing those pounds you added over the holidays? Have you succeeded in breaking that bothersome habit? How about that hobby you promised yourself you would finally take up – have you done that yet?

 If all or most of your answers to these questions are in the negative, take heart. We’re in good company, millions of fellow humans whose best intentions have yet to reach fruition. Resolutions – and even goals – seemingly are meant to be broken or disregarded. They make us feel good while making them, but lead to frustration when we fail to keep them.

 

When I said we’re in good company, I can cite none other than the apostle Paul, who admitted struggling with similar challenges. He said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15). We’ve all been there, right? ‘Why do I do what I don’t want to do, but find myself unable to do the things I want to do?’

 

Right after this, however, Paul wrote something that at first glance seems like passing the buck, refusing to accept responsibility for his failures: 

“And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.” 

 

Then he concludes with the declaration, “Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it” (Romans 7:16-20).

 

When I read this years ago for the first time (and a few times after that), I thought, “What in the world is Paul talking about?” It reminded me of the excuse often employed by the late comedian Flip Wilson’s character, Geraldine: “The devil made me do it!” Later I came to realize that comparison wasn’t far off. 

 

The apostle wasn’t writing about shedding a few pounds, or not keeping a personal commitment to start building bird houses. He was referring to insidious, inescapable sin. The Bible speaks about our having a sin nature, one we’re born with and remains with us until we die. However, when we’re “born again,” as Jesus told Nicodemus (John 3:3,7), we receive a new nature. 

 

For whatever reason, even though we’re made “new creations” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), God chooses not to eliminate our sin natures. As a result, throughout our lives we wrestle with internal conflict, sometimes doing things we don’t really want to do and not doing things we sincerely desire to do. But there’s good news.

 

In another of his letters, Paul wrote, “I can do everything through [Christ] who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Speaking to His disciples, Jesus declared the importance of their dependence upon Him if they are to accomplish anything of eternal value: “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). 

 

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome our old nature – which some translations of the Bible term, “the flesh.” So, unlike the disclaimer of the comic character Geraldine, the devil can’t make us do anything – if we are reborn in Christ. (But the enemy can make some enticing suggestions.)

 

Whether we’re striving to overcome besetting sins, or simply seeking to follow through on worthwhile resolutions or goals we embraced on Jan. 1, we have the Lord’s strength to persevere them until we’ve fulfilled them. ‘I can do all things – through Christ!’ 

Resolving Not to Make Any More Resolutions

We’ve nearly reached the end of the year, and across the country millions of people either have or will be making resolutions for the New Year. These will range from losing weight to getting their anger under control to whittling down debt to spending less time on their smartphones. The problem is, resolutions rarely work.

Say, for instance, you resolve to lose 15 pounds. After the first of the year you start working out, cut back on eating “the good stuff,” and actually make a lot of progress, shedding maybe 10 pounds. Then you have a close encounter with the Cheesecake Factory or a similar establishment, and almost overnight find you’ve gained back five of those lost pounds. The biggest problem with losing weight, after all, is that it’s so easily found. In frustration, you mutter, “Well, forget that!”

Or you resolve to become an advocate for world peace, but then have a loud argument with your spouse. Rather than a peacemaker, you show yourself to be a peace-breaker. “Stick it in your ear, world peace!”

My solution to such resolution failures is simple: Don’t make resolutions. Instead, I set goals. For example, years ago a friend gave me a one-year chronological Bible, and last year I set a goal to finally get around to reading it through. I started the year off well, keeping pace with the daily readings, but then fell behind a week or so for some reason. If it had been merely a resolution, I might have said, “I quit!” 

But since it was a goal for the entire year, I pressed on, reading an extra section or two from time to time, and got caught up. At some points I even got a few days ahead in my readings. There were a couple of other setbacks along the way, but now I’m just a few days short of reaching my goal. Next I’ll have to decide how to structure my Bible reading and study in the New Year.

Years ago, I learned three things about goals: They should be 1) realistic, 2) measurable, and 3) attainable. For instance, even in my younger years I was too big to be a jockey, so aiming to ride the winner of the Kentucky Derby would have made no sense. But I can set a goal of doing vigorous cardio workouts at least three times a week. Realistic. Measurable. Attainable.

Let’s shift our goal focus to the spiritual realm. The Scriptures speak a surprising amount about goals. For instance, the apostle Paul said, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). His life’s focus was on Jesus Christ, and his consuming goal was to remain faithful to His call.

Paul, who had a penchant for using athletic metaphors to teach spiritual truth, told believers in the ancient church in Corinth, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24). Okay, his goal was to win the race – essentially to be the last man standing at the end. But how did Paul intend to accomplish that? Discipline.

He proceeded to write, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever…. I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:25-27). Like a well-trained athlete, the apostle determined not to let physical desires and lusts sidetrack him from fulfilling his goal of pleasing and honoring his Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

How we pursue a similar goal is up to the individual. It’s like the question, “When is it best to have a quiet time?” – setting apart a portion of the day for Bible study, prayer and meditation. The answer is, “whenever works for you on a consistent, daily basis.” The point is, personal time alone with God is a worthwhile goal; how and when to do it is up to our discretion.

One worthy goal mentioned in the Scriptures is one that seems woefully out of step with our noisy, turbulent times and culture. Paul exhorted Christ followers in the Greek city of Thessalonica, “Make it your ambition [goal] to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12).

There’s a lot we could unpack from this passage, but basically the goal is to live in a respectful, God-honoring manner that proves attractive to those outside the faith. After all, God did command us to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), not only physically but also spiritually.

So, while the making of resolutions seems a popular pastime at this point in the year, I’d suggest that setting reasonable goals are a far better approach. That way you can pursue them year-long, and if you mess up or unwittingly take a detour, you can stop, dust yourself off and reset your course, keeping the ultimate goal in sight: to please and bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, who achieved His own goals to teach, die on the cross, and rise from the dead so that He might offer a new life to us through His Spirit.

Start formulating your realistic, measurable and attainable goals so that by the end of next year you can be like the soccer announcers who scream, “Goooooooooal!”

Looking Forward to . . . What?

Christmas with all its preparations and celebrations is over, leaving us immersed in the lull before the New Year. Some of us will spend this time looking back, evaluating what the past year was like – good, bad, what we didn’t get around to doing as we intended, what we started but haven’t yet completed.

Others among us, however, don’t care much for a rear-view mirror approach to life. We’re eager, excited about the prospect of the old calendar year ushering in a new one – whether to bid a fond farewell to this year and build on the positives into the next, or to thumb our noses at the passing year, shout, “Good riddance!” and hope for better things in the future.

Either way, like it or not, ready or not, in just a few days 2017 will appear, so it makes sense to start looking forward. We already know where we’ve been; what we don’t know is where we will be going. As you contemplate the New Year’s inception, what are you looking forward to? (Or, to what do you look forward, for grammar police out there who maintain we must never end sentences by using prepositions!)

If we’ve worked hard during the past year, we might be looking forward to a promotion in our quest to climb the proverbial corporate ladder. Or maybe we’re thinking the hard work will pay off with the opportunity to move to a better, more rewarding job somewhere else. Perhaps a special event is looming in the future – a wedding, the birth of a child, sending one of your offspring to college, seeing one graduate, or even saying good-bye to the workplace and retiring.

For some of us it’s not a singular event we’re looking forward to – we just want to make progress of some kind. It could be in your marriage, at work, or making positive personal changes by losing some weight, exercising more consistently, pursuing more education, or taking up a new hobby.

There’s lots we could look forward to, but let me ask this: What things are you look forward to in a spiritual sense?

The apostle Paul offers a wonderful example. He declared, “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Obviously, Paul wasn’t talking about making New Year’s resolutions. He wasn’t about to burst out with a stanza of “Auld Lang Syne.” The apostle was simply affirming his singular focus, always looking forward to the work and ministry his Lord had entrusted to him, striving to reach as many lives as possible for Jesus Christ.

Elsewhere Paul revealed his motivation, the incentive that kept him in faithful service to his Savior despite numerous trials and much hardship: “While we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). He was absolutely convinced of the imminent return of Christ, keeping that expectation in the forefront of his thinking and planning. The fact Jesus’ Second Coming did not occur during Paul’s earthly lifetime doesn’t detract from his zeal in serving Him and striving to introduce others to Him along the way.

The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews shared Paul’s “tunnel vision” for fulfilling the call of Christ. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:23-24). These words, written nearly 2,000 years ago, suggest the image of a driver at the wheel of a car – or the helm of a ship – staying on course regardless of the circumstances.

It’s not wrong to look forward to making incremental improvements in life, taking a much-anticipated trip, realizing a career goal, or attaining some other personal milestone. But as the Scriptures teach over and over, being followers of Jesus we should be looking forward to being His “instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13), having an eternal impact in the hearts and lives of others, and anticipating His ultimate return – whether that’s tomorrow or 100 years from now. Happy New Year!

Goals or Resolutions?

What’s a resolution worth? I’m pretty sure if you take one of the resolutions you make for the new year, along with $5, you can get a medium-sized latte at your favorite coffee shop. If we all had a penny for every resolution made at New Year’s, we’d all be able to pay off the national debt.

But it’s understandable. At the beginning of each new year, it seems like we’ve got an opportunity for a new start. So many of us do make resolutions – “I resolve to…” or “I resolve not to….” The problem is once they’re broken, we feel like we’ve failed and we give up. “I knew I couldn’t keep that commitment. Why did I even try?”

I prefer to establish goals to pursue all year long. My annual practice is to sit down within the first week and review the year just past, consider how I did on in important areas of my life over the past 365 days, and create new goals for the next 12 months. That way, even if I get off to a slow start, or get interrupted at some point, I still have the remainder of the year to work toward meeting my goals.

A worthwhile goal is to grow spiritually.
But how can we measure that?

Often it’s helpful to break down goals according to categories, like physical, vocational, financial, family, social, and personal growth. One other area is spiritual, a dimension of our lives definitely worth considering.

What kind of spiritual goals can we reasonably set? Long ago I learned it’s futile to try and quantify matters such as spiritual growth, or our walk with God. Our relationship with Him can’t be evaluated by the number of hours we devote to religious activities, or the amount of money we give to support spiritual causes.

And spiritual maturity can’t be measured with a ruler, or a scale, or some kind of chart. There have been times I’ve felt like I was making good progress spiritually, only to discover a day or week later, even 15 minutes later, that I’d taken two steps backward.

Does not mean we can’t set specific goals to help in strengthening our connection with our Lord. No, but they have to be realistic. As the Scriptures tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). God is the only Judge of the heart.

That being said, let me suggest a few reasonable goals that could enhance your spiritual growth during the coming year. As with any valued relationship – a marriage, parent-child, or a friendship – there’s no substitute for time. So if you want to grow in your relationship with God, you have to be intentional about spending time with Him.

Going to worship services, Bible studies and small group meetings are fine, but they’re a secondhand form of communication. Make a point to spend at least a few minutes a day alone with God in pray and reading something from the Scriptures. Where you do this, and when, is up to you. What works for one person won’t work for someone else. But we all need time to talk to the Lord – and allow Him to talk to us.

Years ago a friend came up with an acronym – ACTS – that he used for his daily prayer time: Adoration (praising God); Confession (acknowledging our sins); Thanksgiving (expressing gratitude for who God is and all He has done); and Supplication (presenting our requests and concerns to Him). I’ve found this to be a helpful formula. We can do this continually. As 1 Thessalonians 5:17 instructs us, “Pray without ceasing.”

Too often, however, we skip the first three and go straight to supplication, treating the Lord like a short-order cook (as another friend once put it). Since God in His omniscience already knows what we need and want, it’s good to place our focus on Him first. Once we’ve done that, we might even find the things we ask for are different from what we’d originally intended.

As for reading the Bible, you can start anywhere. In my next post, I’ll offer a few suggestions that I’ve found useful through the years. But don’t wait for my ideas – get started. Adopt the request found in Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law.” Why wait? There’s no better time than the present.

Fresh Starts . . . and New Goals

Have you recovered from the Christmas commotion? Frantic searches for gifts; festive and sometimes stressful family gatherings; frenetic attempts to finish work projects so you can enjoy time off in peace?

The last gifts are barely unwrapped and we’re already wrestling with some of mankind’s most compelling questions: How to celebrate the arrival of the New Year? How long will it take to get used to writing “2012”? How to pay the “merry Christmas” expenses?

But a greater question is what 2012 will offer: What joys, disappointments, achievements and surprises lurk at the turn of the calendar?

The sun is setting on an old year,
making room for a new one.

The ballyhooed transition from 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2011 to 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2012 is largely a global timeline convenience, but it still spawns hope and anticipation – an opportunity to start fresh, vowing to avoid past mistakes and determining to make corrections in the new year.

Columnist Craig Wilson of USA Today wrote, “The best thing about 2012 is that it is a blank slate – a year when anything can happen.... The future? A wide-open road.” 

So what will be written on your “slate”? What course will your “wide-open road” follow?

Some people make resolutions: “I resolve to (fill in the blank).” As I’ve written before, I never make resolutions. They’re easy to break, and once broken, we discard them. Instead, I set goals – tangible, measurable targets, both short-term and long-term. They may include losing a few pounds or learning something new. Or they might be to work on being healthier or more fit, or read some mind-expanding books.

As each new year starts, I maintain an annual tradition of reviewing the year past and setting specific goals for the months ahead. Goals will relate to work, relationships, finances, my physical well-being. Perhaps you’ll do the same.

But have you ever considered setting spiritual goals as well? Granted, we can’t truly gauge spiritual growth. As I see it, God is the only one that can accurately measure that. However, we can set goals that can enhance our spiritual state. Goals like spending time in the Scriptures each day, or reading a challenging, thoughtfully written devotional book. Memorizing some meaningful Bible verses. Setting aside specific time to pray each day.

Everyone’s goals must be their own, but while you’re considering the intellectual, physical and relational aspects of your life, I’d encourage you to also set a goal or two to address the spiritual facet of your life.

In Isaiah 43:18-19, God reminds us to always be looking forward, eager to see what He is going to do: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

Living in a world that seems to have more than its share of desert and wasteland, I plan to set a few spiritual goals to make sure I’m open to what God wants to show me – and teach me – during the coming year. 

Resolved Against Resolutions

With the calendar poised to turn from 2010 to 2011, many of us think of this as a time for a fresh start. For some it means making resolutions to do things differently.

For instance, "I resolve to eat better." "I resolve to quit smoking." "I resolve to get into a regular exercise routine and lose 20 pounds." "I resolve to watch less TV and use my time more productively."

The problem with resolutions is they tend to be all or nothing. Once habits triumph over good intentions, we quit in resignation. "I knew I couldn't do it," we mumble, shrug, and return to our old ways. That's why for many years I've resolved not to make resolutions. Instead, I set goals.

Goals provide a target, something I can aim toward over a desired period of time: Where am I going? How am going to get there? How will I know when I've arrived?

Almost every New Year's Day I sit down and review my goals for the year past, evaluate them, and write down new goals. I even classify them according to different areas of my life: vocational, physical, spiritual, family, mental, financial, ministry, and hobbies

Some of these simply carry over from the past year - such as spending time daily to read the Bible, pray and meditate; exercising at least five times a week; maintaining a goal weight; devoting time to mentoring other men.

But other goals are brand-new, whether they involve my work, writing and editing; planning a special getaway with my wife; or setting new financial objectives.

The point is they give me something to shoot for. If I fail one day, all isn't lost. Tomorrow's another day. A goal can take the whole year to accomplish, like reading through the Bible. Or it can be short-term, such as losing any added holiday weight by March 1.

For me the process is as important as the end result. Hopefully, my goals provide guidelines to help me become a better husband, father, grandfather, worker, friend, and ultimately, servant of Jesus Christ.

I try always to remember, as Colossians 3:23-24 instructs us, "Whatever you do , do you work (even goal-setting) as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve."