Q: I’ve decided I’m not going to make any New Year’s resolutions this year. I’ve always made a long list of changes I plan to make in my life, but then I never keep them, and I just end up feeling guilty. So why bother?.
A: I suspect many readers have had the same experience; it’s much easier to make a list of things we wish would happen to us—and much harder to actually do them. Even the Apostle Paul admitted that “I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19).
What is the problem—especially with the resolutions we often make at the beginning of a new year? Sometimes, I’ve found, the problem is that some of our resolutions simply aren’t realistic. Instead, they are only wishful thinking—and they’d never come true, even if we had the inner strength to attempt them. Other resolutions may sound good—but we have no practical plan to carry them out, and as a result they fail.
But the deeper problem is within ourselves: We lack the inner moral and spiritual strength we need to change our lives. And that’s why we need Christ, because only He can show us how our lives need to be changed, and only He can begin to change us from within by His Spirit.
The most important resolution you can make as another year approaches, however, is this: to open your heart and life to Jesus Christ, and commit your life to Him. Don’t waste your time on resolutions that don’t ultimately matter; resolve instead to live for Christ. The Bible says, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:4).
Q: Every year I come up with a long list of New Year’s resolutions, but then I end up not keeping even one. I’m sincere when I make them, but then they somehow fall by the wayside as time passes. What’s my problem? God must be very disappointed in me.
A: I suspect many readers could echo your words. After all, each of us wants to become a better person and have a better life—and yet it eludes us. Even the Apostle Paul admitted, “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out” (Romans 7:18).
Sometimes our New Year’s resolutions fail because they aren’t realistic—and frankly, there’s no use including something on our list that simply isn’t going to happen. Others fail because we don’t take steps to make them happen—that is, we have no action plan. In other words, we wish for something to happen—but that’s all it is: a wish. Still others fail because we aren’t willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary to bring them about.
But we also fail for a deeper reason: We don’t have the moral and spiritual strength within us to live the way we know we should. We need God’s help—and yet in our pride we refuse to turn to Him, and we try to improve our lives without Him. As a result we fall short.
At the beginning of this new year turn to Jesus Christ and commit your life without reserve to Him. Then ask Him to give you the strength to become the kind of person He wants you to be. Make Jesus’ words your guide: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
Q: Is New Year’s Day a religious holiday, like Christmas or Easter? I don’t recall anything about it in the Bible, but maybe I missed it.
A: Christmas and Easter celebrate the two most important events in human history: the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, and His death and resurrection from the dead. Both remind us of God’s love for us, and both remind us as well of what it cost Jesus Christ to save us from our sins.
New Year’s Day, on the other hand, simply marks the beginning of another year on our calendar; it doesn’t commemorate any specific event in the Bible. However, in the Old Testament God’s people did celebrate the beginning of what they saw as a new year (although not on Jan. 1). For them it was a day of joy and thanksgiving to God for His goodness. The Bible says, “It is a day for you to sound the trumpets” (Numbers 29:1).
Does this mean we should ignore the beginning of another year, or treat it as if it were just another day? No, we shouldn’t. We should take time instead to pause and look back, thanking God for His blessings to us. The Bible reminds us that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17).
But we should also take time at the beginning of the year to look forward, and to commit our lives into God’s hands. Only God knows what the new year will bring—but when we know Christ we can face the future with confidence, because we know we belong to Him. Commit this coming year—and your whole life—to Jesus Christ. You can depend on God’s promise: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
