It’s report card time. No, I don’t mean
that you will receive an actual report card today. In fact the only
grade you will get is the one you assign to yourself. Your task is to
grade yourself on how faithfully you are keeping your New Year’s
resolutions.
You remember those resolutions that kicked in just nine days ago, don’t
you? According to the statistics, most of us are still keeping them.
In fact, 63% of resolution makers are still keeping their resolutions
after two months. How are you doing?
I don’t ask these questions out of insatiable
curiosity. I ask because our ability to keep resolutions is an indicator
of our ability to stick with the things that we know would make us better.
Pollsters tell us that the top four resolutions are 1) Exercise more,
2) Be more focused about work/school, 3) Develop better eating habits,
4) Stop smoking, drinking, or using other drugs. All of these are calculated
choices to make ourselves better. They are good choices, but how well
do we keep these resolutions?
The desire to make changes in our lives that better
ourselves is a good thing. However, it is a better thing to stick with
those decisions. Using myself as an example, I can tell you that I have
lost so much weight over the years that I should no longer exist. Yet,
I am still overweight. The problem for most of us does not lie in the
making of a good decision but in the keeping of a good decision.
Let’s consider a biblical example. The rich young
ruler of Matthew chapter nineteen approached Jesus having made the decision
to do whatever Jesus commanded of him. But he did not follow through
with that decision. Jesus told him what to do, and he quickly decided
to remain as he was and not to obey Jesus. Paul told the Galatians,
“it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and
not only when I am present with you” (Gal. 4:18). Note that Paul
does not advocate the deciding to do a good thing but the doing of it
in with zeal. The rich young ruler had plenty of zeal when bettering
himself was just in the decision-making stage. But, where was that zeal
when it was time to actually make the changes?
If your New Year’s resolution was to get up 30
minutes early and walk every morning, I hope you stick with it. But,
truth be told, I am much more interested in the resolutions you have
made to serve the Lord with obedient gladness. How are you doing on
those resolutions?
