Friday, January 2, 2015

Your New Year's resolution is going to fail

I've got bad news for you. Your New Year's resolution is going to fail. Sorry.

I know. I am pastor, which means I'm supposed to offer encouragement and I should be writing an article entitled "10 ways to stick with your New Year's resolution"  but I'm not going to do that. If that's what you're looking for, there's plenty of other places that will offer a multitude of self-help, to-do steps.

I'm not trying to be a downer or a discouragement for those of you who may be in the first couple of days of whatever new commitment you've made at a time while your still feeling positive about what you're doing. I'm not even telling you this because of the statistics that say only 8% of people will actually still be keeping their resolution a year from now. The reason that I'm saying that you will not find lasting success in your New Year's resolution is that your motivations are all wrong.

How can I say this? It is actually possible for me to state with certainty that whatever your motivations are for attempting to make some change are wrong? I believe so. I can hear you yelling at the screen right now. You're probably cursing me because you think you have a long list of good reasons for trying to make a new change in your life and who I am to tell that your motivations for change are misplaced?!

Even though I may not know what New Year's resolution you've decided to make, I'm going to guess that your thought process behind this change went something like this. "I'm tired of feeling this way." or "I'm doing this for my family." or "I want to get my life organized" or "I want to be a happier person." Whether I hit on the exact phrasing you used or not, I bet I came close to why you've made your resolution. Let's see if I'm right. Help me out by responding to the following:

I'm wanting to make this change in my life for _____________

The reason I believe your resolution is going to fail is because so few people ever fill in that blank the right way. There's only one answer. There's only one thing that must be your motivation. Ready for the answer? Scroll down and see what the right response was.
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I'm wanting to make this change in my life for the glory of God.

"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" 1 Cor. 10:31

When we seek change for any reason other the the glory of God, we are actually seeking our own glory. Not a good idea. In truth, we are making the mistake of worshiping our own desires. When we are trying to make a change to feel better, look better, act better, live better, the focus is on us! We spend so much time thinking about how our lives, or the lives of those around us, might improve if we would just make certain changes, and that's what becomes our motivation. The problem is that my life is not worthy of receiving any glory and every time I fail and every time I sin, I'm reminded of this fact and that leads to me to give up on my resolutions because the motivation for my change (myself) is not near good enough to keep me going.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to loose some weight, have a better attitude, or to get more organized. However, before embarking on whatever change you think you need to make, take time through prayer and the study of God's Word to make sure that the change you making is for God's glory, not your own. Start each day with the reminder that your are doing this for Him, so that He might use you for His purposes, that He might reveal new things in your life, and that He might use these changes to mold your even more into the new creation He has already made you.

I don't want your New Year's resolution to fail. However, even if you stay committed from now to the the end of time to whatever change you've decided to make, but you've done it for your own self, than what good was that change? You might make it to Heaven a few pounds lighter but what does that matter to God? Instead, "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."