God's New Year's Resolutions

whose resolutions matter

Photo by Yiran Yang on Unsplash

Wouldn't it be interesting to know what the Lord has resolved to do at New Years? 

What will God accomplish? In what neighborhoods will He further His Kingdom? How will He work to shape and sharpen and transform His children both at Granada Heights Friends Church and around the world?

Maybe God has destined that it's time for Joe Schmoe to come face-to-face with his addiction to human praise. Maybe God has decided to give Sally Sue eighty opportunities to choose between her own organizational systems or God's transformational systems. Perhaps God will answer John Smith's prayers for direction, but the answer will be quite different than John Smith expected. And maybe God will have Abigail Stevens and her family get sick off and on for five months so they'll know that the Lord works even when Abigail does nothing but watch T.V. and drink Sudafed. That's what the Lord showed me one year among other things, and it was a doozy of a lesson.

Okay, maybe I don't want to know what the Lord has resolved to do in 2024. Maybe his plans would scare the wits out of me. Maybe a glimpse of those terrifying, albeit glorious, plans might cause me to fall prostrate on the ground and start praying "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me! Please, don't do anything too drastic!"

And yet, aren't God's resolutions more valuable, more desirable, and more important than anyone else's? Who cares what I resolve to do in 2024? My resolutions are like wispy clouds seeking solid forms. God's resolutions are like roads already laid before me where I will walk or crawl or stumble one step at a time. Their unknown quality and newness may feel frightening, but the act of seeking out and finding the Lord's ways is an action that countless others have done before us. That action is called faith, and we don't do it alone or in fear that the brick layer, that is God, is capricious at heart. No. He is leading us to success. His kind of success.

All across the world, countless faith-walkers are looking at the New Year and asking, "Lord, what do you resolve to do? Please, show me how can I be a part of it. I believe it will be good." And I hope to join them in this prayer. Will you?