People make many decisions at the first of the year to be better people, resolutions to do lose weight, exercise more, or other such things to improve their lives. It is like we have a fresh start. But in observing myself and others, I have found that in most cases these resolutions don’t last.
Why is that?
A resolution is a strong decision to change. I believe most people are not successful in their resolutions because true change comes from an inward change and not by just making an outward decision or resolution. We are not designed to live in our own power and ability and change ourselves their own strength. Will power alone is not enough to gain control over your life.
Romans 7:18 (Amplified Bible) – For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.]
So I will give you one resolution that will lead in time to victory in all of the other areas you might want to change in your life.
It is the greatest secret life has to offer. If you come to know and learn this secret and live by it, your life will change more than you ever thought possible, you will find the peace and abundant, overflowing life that has always been so elusive, the true fullness of life that all men long for, a control over your life, over habits, emotions and feelings. We were not designed to be controlled but to reign in life.
What is this secret? How can you learn it?
Philippians 4:11-13 (Amplified Bible) – Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want, for I HAVE LEARNED how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am. I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want. I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.
Living this way is something you must LEARN of Him, and it takes time to learn. Anything you learn, you have to study and practice. You must LEARN the secret of yielding to Him and letting His strength flow into you, of putting all of your cares on Him and trusting Him from your heart. You must take the time to wait in His presence until you exchange your strength for His. You must walk with Him in His yoke not your own. You must enter His rest and learn to always abide there.
You can live a life of full of victory as well as contentment and peace, but it only comes through union with Him, through heart trust in Him. Don’t focus on all of the areas you want to change. Instead, put your focus on relationship and fellowship with Jesus, and the other areas of your life you need to change will change through your contact with His presence.
Matthew 11:28-30 (Amplified Bible) – Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.
Isaiah 48:16-18 – Come near to me and listen … Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
Isaiah 40:28-31 – Even youths shall faint and be weary and young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord (who expect, look for, and hope in Him) shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up as eagles. They shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint or become tired.
Hebrews 3-4 – Therefore, let us fear if while a promise remains of entering His rest, any of you may seem to have come short or it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest… The one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his own works as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience…
The focus of your life should be more to enter this rest than to try to improve yourself or to try harder and harder to do what have heard you are supposed to do. When you learn trust in Him, when you learn to live through Him and He through you, you are at peace – and things happen, changes are made – finally! You have finally entered “life.” And you find you are fulfilling more of His desires than ever before. You find that even you can actually live as you always knew a Christian should!
You will find yourself beginning to change, and find the power to fulfill those same resolutions you make year after year. You will have peace because your trust will be entirely in the Lord, and you trust Him enough to work things out for you. What joy to live a life of trust and expectation rather than striving to make things happen, always fearing at the back of your mind that they won’t.
So learn these things, and you will have learned to key to life, the greatest secret life has to offer, and the power to change and become all you were created to be and do all you were crated to do.
So as a new year again begins, make your resolution to draw near to the Lord and learn to trust Him from your heart and let Him carry your cares while you relax and enjoy life in Him.
See also:
Just what I wanted. Praise the Lord.