A sense of renewal and a recommitment to past goals often goes together with the new calendar year. Likewise, jokes about how quickly people walk away from these new goals is ever present. It’s no wonder, considering how meaningless and empty the turn of the year really is.
Staying committed to one’s New Year’s resolutions is self-determined by the person making the proclamations for change. If no greater power than yourself governs your path, it is too easy to stray from your goals. Living by your own ideology does not lead to true happiness, nor to God. Paul, while talking to the Romans about God’s judgement on the self-willed of the world, states, “but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil…” (Romans 2:8-9). Only disappointment lies in wait for those who ignore God and seek their own truths.
Contrasting worldly holidays with God’s yearly cycle, we see meaning, not only for today but far into mankind’s future. The entire Plan of God is interwoven into the annual sabbaths and life itself exists to fulfill God’s great Work with man. Commitment to God’s plan has lasting meaning, something not experienced by the bulk of mankind.
Because God’s Plan is everlasting, our commitment to Him, through receiving the Holy Spirit, is also eternal. Once we take hold of this Truth, like a farmer to their plow (see Luke 9:62), we cannot let go. Too many who were once called have done just that—let go of the Truth in exchange for empty promises.
While failing a commitment to weight loss or removing some simple vices might seem inconsequential, that same attitude regarding the Truth is devastating. We must be wary to not let that kind of thinking take root in our minds. Paul warned Timothy of this attitude, “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith” (1 Timothy 6:20-21).
Our true resolution began when we arose out of our watery grave, leaving behind the passing pleasures of this world and seeking the eternal promises of God. We must make sure the pursuit of that eternal goal is always at the forefront of our hearts.
