Today’s Daily Bread ~ New Year’s Resolutions

Isaiah 38:16 – Lord, your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health.  You have restored my health and have allowed me to live!

As I type these words on January 1^st of 2011, I am sitting inside the Life Café at Lifetime Fitness in Flower Mound, Texas.  After a two week stretch of little exercise and lots of sweets, I felt the need to hit the gym.  And after a week spent in Kansas City with my two children, two sisters, three nieces plus a nephew, I felt the need to retreat with my journal, my Bible, and the Lord.  So here I sit.

Just for fun, I decided to research New Year’s resolutions to see what people were hoping to achieve in 2011.  Weight loss, as expected, took the top spot.  Helping the family lose weight came in second.  Rounding out the top five were getting a job or a better job, quitting smoking, and falling in love.  Six through ten didn’t hold many surprises, consisting of enjoying life, getting organized, spending more time with the family, helping others and running a marathon.

As I peruse the list, I can’t help smile skeptically.  Today’s issue of the New York Times reports that four out of five people resolving to make changes in the New Year will quit, and a third won’t even make it to the end of the month.  In my experience, destructive, unhealthy habits are awfully hard to break unless you ask the Holy Spirit for help.

Does God listen when we pray about weight loss or better organizational skills?  Yes.  The steps of the godly are directed by the LORD.  He delights in every detail of their lives (Psalm 37:23).  But are we praying for the right things?  For 2011, let’s resolve to ask the Lord to search our hearts, showing us areas in our lives where we aren’t honoring Him with our lifestyle.

If your resolution is:

Weight loss – remember this:  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?  You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price.  So you must honor God with your body. 

You are God’s precious child; His treasured creation.  He spilled His Son’s blood that You might seek Him, know Him and love Him.  Ask God to help you treat meals as an act of gratitude and worship.  Ask Him to point out any voids in your heart that you are attempting to fill with food, and ask Him to fill them.  Ask Him to cleanse your heart and make His will your heart’s desire.  If food is an idol for you, ask Him to strike it down.  If food is your comfort, ask Him to help you get to a place where Jesus is the only comfort that will suffice.  Pray this daily, and claim victory in Christ!

Getting a job – consider this: Genesis 2:15 – The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it.  God wants you to work.  He created you for it.  Ask God to show you why you are in a season of unemployment.  Is He trying to get your attention?  Ask God to give you patience and perseverance.  Ask Him to lead you to the right job and to give you discernment about accepting it.  Ask Him for discipline.  Ask Him to help you to see this time as a blessing, freeing you up to devote yourself to prayer and Scripture study.  Set aside time each morning to worship Him and to seek His counsel as you go through the day.

Getting a better job – try to remember that you are where you are for a reason. Colossians 3:23-24 – Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.  Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ.  Ask Him why you’re there.  Is there someone who needs to be led to Christ?  Perhaps you’ll never understand His plan, so ask for patience while it plays out.  Be a living witness right where you are, trusting that God is always working behind the scenes.  When your task for Him is completed, He’ll move you on to the next one. 

Being more financially responsible – Isaiah 26:12 – LORD, you will grant us peace, for all we have accomplished is really from you.  Everything we have is God’s, and everything can be stripped from us at a moment’s notice.  Ask God to search your heart and reveal why you are in hard financial times.  Are you living above your means?  There is no peace to be found when you’re house poor, car poor, or stuff poor.  If you are finding your worth in things rather than Christ, confess and repent.  Ask God to help you overcome your materialism, and to open your eyes to things of eternal worth.  Ask God for a generous heart, and to make you a good steward of all His gifts.

Falling in love – Like it was yesterday, I remember when my greatest desire was to fall in love and get married.  I also remember the Holy Spirit’s gentle reminder: Psalm 37:4 – Take delight in the LORD and He will give you your heart’s desire.  Ask God to help you see your singleness as a gift, and devote yourself to seeking His will.  Ask Him to make His plan for you clear, and chase after it with all your strength.  It will be far more fulfilling than rushing into the wrong marriage for the wrong reasons.  God intends for most of us to walk through this life two by two.  Pour out your heart to Him in prayer, and ask Him to remove the desire to be married if it’s not His will.  Be patient, and trust that His will and His timing are perfect. 

Dear Heavenly Father, we love You so much.  We thank You for all the blessings and gifts of 2010, and we eagerly anticipate watching Your plan unfold in the New Year.  Above all else, help us to live Spirit-led lives.  Help us to come to you not with our plans to bless, but with our lives, to be a blessing.  Help us to come to you as a clean slate, a blank page, upon which You will write the story of our lives.  We ask for clean hearts and willing hands.  We ask for eyes to see You everywhere we look.  May we never take our relationship with You for granted.  Overwhelm us with Your grace, mercy and love on a regular basis.  We ask these things in the beautiful, precious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  Amen.