Why not a New Years Resolution?

 Well, it is that thime of year again. The old is passing and the new is coming. For years people have stopped and reviewed their past year and resolving that they need to make changes in the New Year to come. Let us take a moment to think about this and really look at a difference between resoulting and commiting.
  I will begin by sharing this fact with all of you. Throughout my life I alwasy made some silly and some not so silly reolutions. That's what all were taught weren't we? I would always resolve to not cuss as much, quit gambling, stop drinking as much, lose weight, stop spending as much, be a better husband, or becoming a better father. The list could go on even further than that, but for time sake I will stop right there. Have you ever found yourself in the same place?
  Today I do not make rersolutions. Today I make commitments. Many of us feel that they both have pretty much the same meaning, but the truth is that one leads to doing and the other to trying. If a person turly wants to accomplish something they will be doing rather than trying. Trying always leads to a loophole if you do not want to persevere.
  Today many people get offended when I tell them to stop trying and start doing. When someone tells me that they are trying to quit drinking, lose weight, cuss, or anything else, to me it says that they truly don't want to do it. Why would I say that? Because, I too bought into the same thing all of my life until I chose to 'Commit' rather than try. If one tries, thenthey probably wil not give it their all. If one commits then they usually give it their all.
 As the New Year comes in and the old is going out I want to share this important scripture with you all that has changed my life and continues to chnage my life each and every day "Whoever is in Chirst is a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come." I comitted and quit trying after I read this scripture in 1992. I quit trying to live a good life, to live as a Christian, and to live as Christ. I committed to Him once and for all. Each one of us will have to do the same. Each one of us will either commit to being a follower of Christ, or a follower of the world struggling to please ourselves with things, our looks, and our bad habits. We will find ourselves making resolution after resolution to change the things in our lives that we need fixed, and lead us away from the cross instead of to it.
 I do not believe for one second that the Lord cares about whether you need to lose weight, or cast a trivial habit away as a sacrifice to be better. I believe He wants us to stop resoluting and start committing. The greatest committment any of us can make for a New Year is that we will be true followers of Jesus Christ. That we will get rid of anything in our lives that will mar or blemish the work on the cross. That the lost and dying world can have hope of a better life, a life in Christ. Don't resolute, commit~