I am not the kind of person who makes New Year’s resolutions. I do not make them, because I know I will not keep them. Can any of us really commit to our whole year being different? It seems if I make resolutions I then have no grace for myself. So when I fail which I will do I just give up completely. Since I know this about myself. I have recently gone to the other extreme and don’t want to think back on the past year or look forward to the new year. This is wrong too.
I will not say this year is going to different. This year is going to be the best ever. I mean I hope it is that would be amazing, but I am not in control of the circumstances that 2010 will bring. Instead I will say that this year I will live one day at a time. It’s the only way for me. It’s the only way I can handle all the situations in front of me. I know that we were not made to live looking in the past or gazing into the future. God is here in the present. He is with all of us right now. I pray that 2010 would be a year where I realize that more and more. I pray that this would be a year where I learn to live in the present. I pray that this New Year would be a year where I am open to what God has in front of me. I pray that I would not miss out on the work God has for me in St Louis as He prepares me for the race in July.
Yes of course I am excited for July. Of course I need to prepare for July, but I believe my best preparation for July is learning to be still and hear the voice of God. My best preparation is learning to rely on Him every moment. So as we begin this new year I encourage you to not focus so much on the external resolutions you will make. Instead focus on the transforming power of God’s grace in your life. It is good if you hope to quit drinking, smoking, eating fattening foods whatever it may be. Those things are only symptoms. Behavior modification only works for so long. You need to be changed from the inside out. Real change will not happen until you learn to rest in His grace.
So I pray for you and for me that this year will be a year where each moment we can rest in His power and through his power our lives would be changed.
