Making the Resolution

It is January the 4^th. How is that resolution going? Or, for you overly ambitious types…how are those resolutions going?

If you made a resolution, you find yourself right now in one of at least three categories. The first group thrives on resolution. You possess the inner determination to do whatever you have set forth in your mind to do. Lose 15 pounds? Done by day 3. Read a new book? Memorized by January 5. That’s just in your DNA and, while some of us may be angered by the easiness of your resolve, it needs to be encouraged as you moved forward.

Then there is the second group. You made a resolution. You are keeping your resolution. You are hating that you ever made a resolution. It seemed like the right idea at the time, but it was probably a bit ambitious. You decided to master another language, but English is often difficult for you. You made a diet resolution, but you have never skipped an afternoon snack or dessert. You set out to write a thank you note to everyone who gifted you with something at Christmas, but never made a list of who gave what. The resolution is out there, the “want” of seeing it accomplished is there, but the goal is to hard to reach, so you are miserable. Don’t give up. Dig in and find little ways to chip away at your goal. It can be reached, just not quite the way you first planned it out.

Okay, third group…you’re up. You made a resolution on Monday and it barely made it out of your brain before it was broken. A couple of factors could play into this. It could be that in making a resolution that sounds good, the thought of execution was not placed into the process. Been there. Getting off the ground is the hardest part.

Another factor is the actual willingness to commit to something. It is easy to commit to exercise from the recliner. It is another thing to actually give up time in said recliner to exercise. Guess what? There is hope for you as well! Find what will motivate you to stay committed. That’s basically in every self help book you can find.

As you can probably imagine, I am not exactly interested in giving you the self help jargon in which you can drown at any bookstore. I want to press you towards Godliness. This past Sunday I issued the challenge for you all to begin finding ways to discipline yourselves for the purpose of being Godly. That is the direct command of Scripture in 1 Tim 4:7. In the message, I briefly touched on a few areas of spiritual discipline that I would like to encourage you to develop in 2018. If you were not with us for worship Sunday morning, here is the list I covered (this list is not exhaustive): Bible intake, prayer, worship, evangelism, missions, service, stewardship, accountability, journaling, and learning.

I am not asking that you take all of these on at once. That would be foolish, frustrating, and a failure, especially if you have never taken on any one of these. Here is the resolution I am asking you to make: Put the pursuit of godliness first in your life and find ONE of these spiritual disciplines to develop in 2018. Over the next 10 weeks, I am going to walk through each of these disciplines. Join me for the journey. I will share my experience with some of these and I will share from lead teachers of our faith like Kent Hughes and Don Whitney who a have developed these disciplines well and taught others to do the same.

I always encourage you to read ahead, so if you are interested you can get a copy of “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life” by Don Whitney for less than $10 on Amazon (just be sure to use smile.amazon.com and select FBC Fairburn as your charitable organization!). In the meantime, pray over 2018 with a purpose towards God’s best in your life. God’s best in our greatest reward and honor of faith. God’s best is Himself in Christ Jesus. Make the resolution now to pursue Him!

See you Sunday as we start Ephesians!