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Blog Archive
January 01, 2017
Resolved
Resolved
It’s that time of year again when people will make New Year’s resolutions. Some will resolve to lose weight. Others will resolve to learn a new language. Some will even resolve to go to church more.
Resolutions can be good. The New Year is a time that gives us an opportunity to evaluate our life and see where we need or desire to make improvements. Resolutions are a way for us to try to focus ourselves to make those desired improvements come to fruition.
However, as many of us know, resolutions are often abandoned, forgotten, or put on hold never to be considered again until the next New Year comes around.
Jonathan Edwards, the great American pastor and theologian had a way of dealing with resolutions, he made life resolutions that he had written down and would regularly review. Here are a couple examples of his 70 life resolutions:
5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
28. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
67. Resolved, after afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them, what good I have got by them, and what I might have got by them.
If you are planning to make some New Year resolutions, make them life resolutions. To help you with that, let me give you five to consider.
Resolved to…
Mortify my sin (Col. 3:1-10) – mortify means to be killing your sin. John Own said it best, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Peter warns us to abstain from passions of the flesh as they “wage war against your soul” (1 Pe. 2:11).
Meditate on God’s Word (Ps. 1:1-3) – this is to think upon, ponder, consider the Word of God like a cow chewing its cud. Jerry Bridges says of meditation, “When we meditate on the Scriptures we talk to ourselves about them, turning over in our minds the meanings, the implications, and the applications to our own lives.”
Memorize the Scriptures (Ps. 119:11) – In order to properly mortify our sin or even meditate on God’s Word, we must first hide it in our hearts. Memorizing Scripture is a way to feed your soul, strengthen your will, and warm your heart anytime and anywhere.
Master Sound Doctrine (Titus 1:3) – If we do not have a firm grip on the truth the Bible teaches we will be easily swayed by those things that are filled with half-truths, that sound truthy, but are actually false. A. W. Tozer said: “It would be impossible to overemphasize the importance of sound doctrine in the life of a Christian.”
Magnify Christ in all that I do (1 Cor. 10:31) – Exalting Christ is not one thing on our to do list, but it is to permeate everything we do. John Piper said, “There is no part of life, no matter how seemingly insignificant (Christ-exalting teeth-brushing), in which making much of Christ is alien.”
I trust you will take on these resolutions, not for 2017 only, but for life.