A New Year…A New Me….
Today is January 11th, and chances are you
haven’t kept your new year’s resolutions.
Not even two weeks into the new year, and perhaps you’ve stopped going
to the gym already, or maybe you’ve interrupted your “clean” eating. Regardless of the resolution, it is estimated
that only 8% of those who make resolutions follow through over the long
haul.
As I was taking some time during the Christmas break to
ponder the New Year, a passage of Scripture came to my mind and it reminded me how
easy it is to forget what we want to be about or more importantly who we want
to pursue. The passage can be found in
Judges 2:1-5. In these five short verses we have an incredible recap of
Israel’s history, a sobering indictment of their behavior, and what looks like
a people resolute to make a change.
The passage starts of describing an angel of the Lord
visiting Israel and declaring how God had been faithful to them in the
past. His faithfulness had been
displayed numerous times from all of the Exodus events and continuing into the
conquest of Canaan. In God’s
faithfulness, Israel simply had to obey.
Joshua even charged Israel before his death that if they would be faithful
to the Lord, God would provide for them and bring them into incredible blessing. However, as the reader continues in Judges 2,
we see that the angel lays out the indictment that Israel had not obeyed. There is almost a sarcastic assessment of
their situation when the angel poses the question, “What is this you have
done?” It comes across almost as ARE YOU
KIDDING ME?
What follows is a description of consequences and the
people’s response. The people cried out,
wept, and made an altar with an appropriate name. At this point it looks like the people get
it. I mean they have to get it,
right? Unfortunately, only a few verses
later we see the people turning from their contriteness and again disobeyed and
sinning against the faithful God.
So why do I connect this with New Year’s resolutions? Simple – many times at the end of the year we
see a picture of what the past year has been.
Sure there are times when we rejoice in what has been accomplished, the
joys we’ve experiences, and what God has provided. However, in most of our hearts there also
exists a knowledge - a desire – to be better in the next year. For the Christian, this “better” is
Christlikeness. Sure there are “things”
I want to accomplish in 2016, but more importantly that anything else, I want
to grow in maturity with Christ. I want
my life to more closely point to Jesus for those around me. If this is going to be the case in my
resolutions, I cannot be like the people in Judges, and forget the faithfulness
of God and pursue the things of this world.
I must instead walk closely with God, pursue Him daily, and be
transformed by the power of the Spirit.
Maybe this year your simple resolution should be: a closely walk with thee,
Jesus.
