New Year's Resolutions

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Romans 12:1-2

As a child, I always wanted to make a new year’s resolution, mostly because of a record my father shared with me.

Happy New Year by Spike Jones

When my mother-in-law begins to yell and shout
Through the window I would like to throw her out.
But I resolve not to do it, here is why:
I'm afraid of hittingsomeone passing by.
This is my New Year's resolution.

When I'm at the movies watching a love scene
And a lady's hat is blocking half the screen
I resolve not to shout, "Take off that hat!"
I'll remove it gently with a baseball bat.
This is my New Year's Resolution.

When I take a lovely lady out to eat
And she orders caviar instead of meat
I resolve to let the lady have her fill.
And of course I'll also let her pay the bill.
This is my New Year's Resolution.

When I'm sitting with my wifey on a bus
And a dear old lady stands in front of us
I resolve to be a gentleman discreet.
I'll politely offer her my wifey's seat.
This is my New Year's Resolution.

When my mother says, "Come in, it's time to eat."
And I keep on playing games out in the street
I resolve to rush right home now when I'm called
Cause my pop just got a hairbrush and he's bald.
This is my New Year's Resolution.

On the radio this year I hope to score
With some funny jokes you've never heard before.
I resolve not to tell a corny joke.
Hello, what's that? The church burned down?
Holy smoke!This is my New Year's Resolution.

In this coming year I'm going to be discreet.
Have the Slicker's playing music soft and sweet.
I resolve to treat Tchaikovsky tenderly
And set his second movement with TNT.
This is my New Year's Resolution.


There’s just something about the new year that allows us (or, in some cases all but requires us) to start over. The turn-over of the calendar reminds us of what we’ve done or what we’ve left undone. Or we’re "Another year older and deeper in debt," as Tennessee Ernie Ford might have put it.

I used to hate the beginning of the new year for one reason. All the new people would crowd my usually blessedly empty gym, and I’d have to wait to work out. Of course, I knew that things would return to normal in a couple of weeks once the resolution had run its course.

Who here makes new year’s resolutions?

OK, who here keeps them?

I had a friend who would make mock resolutions like, "I resolve to gain 10 pounds this year."
But what makes for a good resolution? Or is there any sense in making one at all? I believe that resolutions can be a good thing. "Can" is the operative word here. It’s only a good thing if you intend to follow through with it. Some people have spent their entire lives beating themselves up: if only I was… (you can fill in the blanks there with your own foibles, problems, or growth areas). But that’s all the farther they get. They never do anything about the problem. I sometimes think, "I need to drink less Coke" but I won’t do anything about it – why not?

Because it’s not really a problem for me.

Or we decide that this is the year we’re going to do something about it, and we’ll start… tomorrow.

A good resolution follows the following criteria:

  1. It is stated as a positive statement. ‘I will lose 10 pounds’ is a much better goal than 'I won’t be so fat.’
  2. It is precise: Set a precise goal, putting in dates, times and amounts so that you can measure achievement. If you do this, you will know exactly when you have achieved the goal, and can take complete satisfaction from having achieved it.
  3. It is properly prioritized: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals, and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
  4. It is written down: This crystallizes them and gives them more force.
  5. It involves others: Nobody goes through life alone – and we all need the help of others to reach our goals.
  6. It is realistic: If your resolution is to be perfect – sure, that’s a good thing to reach toward, but it’s not very realistic.
  7. Truth is, for a resolution to be a good one, it has to be something you really care about. If you don’t care about it, it’ll never come true, because you’re not willing to work at it enough to make it come true.

In the letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul writes not about simple goal setting or resolutions, however, but complete transformation. He writes:

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God
because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the
kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy
the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new
person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for
you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Is this something you want? Do you want to know God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will for you? If that’s what you want, if you’re tired of living life on the sidelines of God’s will, if you’ve figured out that there must be more than simply the patterns of this world, then it’s time for transformation. If you’re content with what this world has to offer, if your money can buy you happiness, if you can carry yourself through any crisis, then you’re not ready for this.

If you’re ready for more, then it’s time to offer yourself as a living and holy sacrifice. Thinking about spiritual transformation in terms of new year’s resolutions can be helpful – we can make a positive statement like ‘I will allow God to transform me more into the likeness of Christ.’
Is it precise? Well, my goal is complete Christ-likeness – that’s pretty precise, isn’t it?
Is it prioritized? To really be transformed requires us to offer our entire selves to God – that means that our relationship with Him is first priority in our lives. That means God takes precedent over everything.

Is it written down? God has written down His promises to you – is it so much to ask for you to put your promises to God in writing as well?

Does it involve others? Too often we make spiritual decisions and then fail to follow through. The best way I’ve found to actually follow through is to involve someone else. When I rededicated my life to Christ while I was in college, I involved two friends – we went to church together and we studied the Bible together. Currently I meet weekly with a group of four other pastors, and we have given each other permission to ask the hard questions about our lives. John Wesley required early Methodists to meet in small groups – you weren’t allowed to take Communion if you hadn’t been to your class meeting!

Is it realistic to expect transformation? I believe that it is – I’m a living example, and I know some of you have experienced transformation as well.

I want to finish up with some comments about spiritual transformation.

  1. Deep, lasting spiritual transformation is a process. Don’t expect to be completely different tomorrow morning. But do expect people to notice a difference next year. If you haven’t grown spiritually over the past year, you’re probably not growing.
  2. Spiritual transformation requires desire. If you don’t want to be transformed, you probably won’t be. God won’t force you. But often this kind of transformation comes with this kind of prayer: "God, I really don’t want to change. Please help me want to want to change!"
  3. Spiritual transformation flows out of an intimate relationship with Jesus. There’s no shortcut. There’s no miracle pill. You won’t be like Jesus unless you are with Jesus. But when you are with Jesus 24/7, you’ll find yourself being transformed more and more into His likeness.
  4. Spiritual transformation requires discipline. It’s no coincidence that the word discipline and the word disciple share the same root. It’s hard, almost impossible to change the way you think – even with discipline. If I had continued with my thought, "I’d love to run a marathon someday" - how far do you think I would have run in the marathon? Not far. But with the discipline to run every day, no matter what the weather was like, whether I felt like it or not, I was able to complete it.
  5. Spiritual transformation is brought about by the Holy Spirit, as we exercise faith and obedience. Though our society places highest worth on what we can do for ourselves, we won’t be transformed on our own. No, transformation requires us to rely fully on God.
  6. Spiritual transformation is possible (and assured) because of the new life we received when we were born again.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. Not only is spiritual transformation possible and assured, it is expected of the Christian. One reason many Christians have a bad reputation is because many of us have given the same attention to our spiritual transformation as we have to our new year’s resolutions, that is, we forget it as soon as we leave the room.

Would you rather make that kind of new year’s resolution, the kind that we can cast aside with no problem because they don’t have any weight or meaning? Or would you like to be spiritually transformed and, instead of simply making resolutions, we can be a part of a revolution!

My challenge to you is a challenge of spiritual transformation. That each of us will allow, even challenge, the Holy Spirit to transform us – as individuals and as a church. And by doing so, we will see this community transformed for Christ.

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