I wonder how many of your New Year’s resolutions have you broken already?
The dangerously high pile of stacked plates and the overflowing bin will tell you my ambition of maintaining a clean kitchen this year has not gone to plan.
The New Year can be frustrating at times. Our grand plans of changing our lifestyle and improving our routine can quickly fall flat on their face. Promises to finish essays well ahead of time feel quaint when still at the library after midnight; reading the Bible every day can be skipped when bed seems more appealing; attempts to go meat-free end in a guilt-tinged trip to McDonalds; and plans to start going to small group fall by the wayside when we maybe miss the first couple weeks back.
Despite our best efforts, disappointment can be a familiar feeling when we slip back into old patterns. We can resign ourselves to those annoying habits of ours and look wistfully at those who seem to have their lives together. “Will things ever really change?” I’ve certainly asked myself this question before, especially when it comes to my relationship with God.
This is why I find the New Year a helpful time for the following reminder: "those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God" (Romans 8:14).
You’re still you. An imperfect person. However, you’re still God’s child as well, one who has been made righteous and whole in His eyes because of the sacrifice of Jesus. No failed resolution will alter this, your identity remains sealed in Him and His love for us will never change regardless of whether our actions don’t always match our intentions.
But the New Year is also a helpful time for a challenge. Later in Romans 8:26 we are told "the Spirit helps us in our weakness". Yes, God’s love for us is constant and we don’t need to fight to change ourselves to gain His affection. But His Spirit lives in us – we’ve been transformed. Being a son or daughter isn’t an excuse to do nothing, but rather a motivation to become more like Jesus in what we say and do.
