I Resolve To…

What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

How will they direct your life in the New Year?

Take a minute and watch the video, then read of three resolutions we can find in the teachings of the apostle Paul.

New Beginnings

This is the time of year for new beginnings.  Resolutions are made….many to lose weight, work out more, work harder, earn more, save more, vacation more…and so on and so on.  You get the idea. The intention of resolutions is to bring about a positive change, usually by setting goals and determining to work harder to achieve them.

Now, don’t hear me wrong.  Such resolutions are not bad.  They can help us in redirecting our energy in more positive and productive ways.  But there are some biblical resolutions that will produce even greater results.  The apostle Paul gives three in Ephesians 3:14-19.  These are, however, not  “to do” resolutions.  They are three “to be” resolutions. And, when we read the passage carefully, we find that they are gifts of grace from our Father:

Ephesians 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God  

1. be strengthened with might
2. be rooted and grounded in love
3. be filled with all the fullness of God

Three Resolutions for the New Year

What a great passage.  Paul listed three things that God desires to give us and that we should desire to have more abundantly in our lives.  With close examination, we find Paul’s words to be a trinitarian teaching and they offer a perfect New Year’s resolution for us to claim. Let’s examine how, by God’s grace, we can be more strengthened, rooted, grounded, and filled?

1. Strengthened in the Might of the Holy Spirit:  It is by His Spirit that we are strengthened with might.  Commit this New Year to be a time of learning more about the Person and power of the Holy Spirit.  It is by knowing Him better that we are strengthened and empowered to walk in His might, not in our flesh. (Galatians 5:16, 25).
2. Rooted and grounded in the Love of Jesus: Paul just told us, it is by the Holy Spirit that Christ dwells in our hearts. Next, he tells,  it is by faith that we are rooted and grounded in love.  What faith?  Our faith and trust in Jesus.  Jesus is love and His law is love (Romans 13:19, James 2:8). Therefore, by knowing Jesus better we live more fully in faith–more rooted and grounded in His love (1 John 4:19).
3. Filled with the Fullness of God:  It is by the Spirit’s teaching and by the Lord Jesus’ love that we are strengthened, rooted and grounded.  It is by our response, in love for God, that our relationship with all three Persons of the Godhead grows in richness and we experience the fullness of God in our lives.

Could there be any better resolutions to begin the New Year?  Grow in strength in the Holy Spirit.  Be rooted and grounded in the love of Jesus.  And, be filled to overflowing with the fullness of relationship with our amazing God.

And remember, all of this is being worked in us by the power of Him who is able, Him who is gracious and Him who loves us…

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen

Happy New Year from Reasons for Hope* Jesus

It’s not to late to help us finish the year strong! Take a minute and read about the ministry work of Reasons for Hope*Jesus. Then please consider supporting our ministry work for next year with a tax deductable donation of any amount.

Inspiration for the New Year:

A Football Lesson in Life from Wrong-Way Riegels
Auld Lang Syne for Grace and Love Divine
For Days of Auld Lang Syne
What are “The 70 New Year’s Resolutions?”
A New Year’s Meditation by Matthew Henry (1662-1714)
A New Year, A New Hope, It’s My Year – Guaranteed to Make You Smile! (video)
How Do I Change My Life? Two New Year’s Resolutions that will work!
Is a New Year’s Eve party biblical? What about the alcohol?  
At the Gate of the Year: A Message to a Troubled Nation
I Resolve To….(video)
A New Year, A New Start. . .Another Resolution? 
A New Year, A New Beginning   
Good Reminders for the New Year  
Ways to Glorify God - Bookmark
70 New Year's Resolution by Jonathan Edwards  
A New Year Lesson from the Book of Job, by Ray Stedman (1917-1992)
Daily Directions for Holy Living, by Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

Not feeling in a celebratory mood?  Remember, you are not alone.  Read: Distressed and Despairing? You’re not alone!

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