New Year Resolution or Revelation?
It's time to renew your old resolves,
And add a few that are new
Resolve to keep them as long as you can
What more can a poor man do. unknown
NOTE: The KEY is at the end of this blog.
You've reflected, forgiven, made your mind up about some things and now it's time to start anew. You begin to evaluate the people, purpose and progress that have consumed your life 'til now. Oh yeah, you are making your New Year Resolutions! But wait, before you stick that precious magnet to the fridge where you'll look for that list that inspires (and sometimes taunts) you daily... Let's save a lot of time and wasted effort. Fact is
RESOLUTIONS DON'T WORK; REVELATIONS DO!
New Year's resolutions are an ageless tradition in setting goals and THEN FAILING TO MEET THEM. They are flawed because they are driven by our wants, but very rarely are they based on an invincible need for different results. Eating better because you want to look better isn't provocative enough to make you stick to the diet. Having your doctor remind you (again) of the multiple threats to your health if you continue to drink yourself under the table at every Christmas party, STILL isn't enough to make some of us change our ways. What about the relationship changes? The heart loves to remind us of its emotions, good and bad, even when our current truth is far from how it felt at the time. Making decisions from this place is not only ineffective, it could be dangerous.
Let's face it. With some habits, unless we are hit hard in the head and the heart, it is unlikely that we will actually make the kind of change that lasts. It's what the best life coaches, behavioral specialists and other professionals have known forever: Change doesn't come about because we want it to, it comes about because we need it to. And who understands NEED better than God?
He's the Creator of the plan, so why not include Him in the planning process? If God gives the plan, He also gives the REVELATION so that we may appreciate the plan and make it effective.
(THIS IS KEY) When setting goals, seek and wait for revelation. Allow God to reveal something to you that you previously misunderstood or did not know. God wants us to know His plans for our success. Revelation helps us to appreciate goals in way we never have before, so that with God we can go after them with strategies and resources we never had before. God's plan (not ours) ALWAYS accomplishes that which it was set out to do: it NEVER returns undone. (Isaiah 55:11) Now go ahead and free yourself... throw out that list and start a new one with God.
