A Backwards New Year’s Resolution
I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s Resolutions. I am not opposed to making healthy changes or setting goals. I just don’t want to wait for a certain day on the calendar to tell me that is the day to make a change.
More than anything I feel like the New Year can be one more way we have to try harder. One more way we look at what we did the year before and think, ‘That’s not good enough. This year I will work harder, try more, dig deeper, be happier.” I’m not saying we don’t need to evaluate our life and make changes. Of course, we do. We should always be learning, growing, and changing. However, what I find is that many of us are searching for the one thing we are missing. So we think, “This year I will try harder. I will find joy. I will find peace. I will…..”
Many times we end up trying too hard in our search for more of what we want more than anything in the world.
The try hard life is exhausting. The grace covered life revives the soul.
The try hard life reminds us of our failures. The grace covered life tells us ‘It is finished.’
Like every year, I will not be making a New Year’s Resolution. Actually, maybe I’m making a backwards resolution. As we kick off the start of a fresh year, I surrender to the try hard life. I raise my hands high. I open my hands to His daily grace.
All I want this year is more of Him. More of His moment by moment Presence. I want eyes wider to see Him in each moment He graces to me. I want to wear grace tinted glasses so in all the minutes that I encounter, I can’t help but see Him in it.
May I suggest you release yourself of the pressure to set a New Year’s Resolution this year? Instead open yourself to His grace. Surrender your will to His. Surrender your plans to His. Then get ready to experience the life you’ve never imagined in ways you can’t fathom. When He is in it, you can’t help but change. And the person He will grow you into, you could never achieve on your own.
So today, I am thankful for a fresh start. But this fresh start doesn’t only come once a year. It’s available every day. Every moment. All we have to do is raise our hands and surrender. Let go of trying harder. Let Him do the work.
My life verse
[box] “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10[/box]
[box] “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23[/box]
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