We are almost two months into the new year. I wonder how many people are still keeping their New Year's resolutions. Maybe you are one of those rare individuals who are able to make up your mind and follow through. Most of us have great ideas of what we would like to do, but find it very difficult to make the changes necessary to actually do them.
You know the kind of things I am talking about. Those resolutions that we make to stop smoking or lose weight, eat a healthier diet, exercise more or be more loving. You fill in the blank. There is no end to the kinds of things we resolve to do, but most of us never actually make the change we had hoped for. Is there something like that in your life?
The phenomenon of deciding to do something beneficial and then not being able to follow through is not new. The Apostle Paul wrote about it long ago in the New Testament. In Romans 7:15, he said, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."
Does that sound like you? Are there things that you hate about your life, but when you try to change, you just can't do it? Or are there things that you really want to accomplish, but when it comes to actually doing those things you don't seem to be able to get them done?
Most of us have something in our life that we have struggled with and been unsuccessful in changing. When the Apostle Paul wrote about it in his own life, he said, "What a wretched man I am!" and then he asked a question, "Who will rescue me out of this predicament?" Who is going to help me so that I can be the person I want to be? Well, Paul answered his own question, because he knew the way out. He said, "Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
Paul knew that Jesus was the answer. He was the answer then, and Jesus is the answer now. Have you tried asking God for help? When we put our faith in Christ and ask for forgiveness of our sins he takes our sin away and makes us into a new person. When we surrender to Christ, our life is turned around and he gives us the strength to overcome those things that have plagued us for so long.
Put your faith in Christ. It will make all the difference.