A New Year’s Resolution

I really don’t like making New Year’s resolutions. They are often made and not kept. They also tend to follow you throughout the New Year and make you feel guilty. I for one, have no problem feeling guilty about things, so I have to be careful and make sure if I am feeling guilty it is about the right stuff.

So what about a resolution this year? Well there is a resolution that is starting to grow inside me. I am not sure about the best way to state it. It’s about walking and not just talking, it’s about doing something good instead of just reading about it and thinking that it might be a nice thing to do but maybe not today.

Jesus says, “ Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21) A few verses down He goes on and says, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the wind beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” (Matthew 724-27)

So much of the time I feel like the man that the Apostle James speaks about in James chapter 1 verses 22-24. James says, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away and forget what you look like.” I am often that man that walks away from the mirror and forgets what I look like.

So how do I make this into a resolution? Is it doable or will I just feel guilty all year? Let me try to state it this way, “This year I will try to do more of the good that I know to do than to just wistfully think about all the good I could do but never do!”