During the Christmas/New Year season each year I find myself evaluating my life in terms of what God calls me to do. I ask myself, how am I loving and obeying my Savior? Also, how well do I love my husband, my children, and my friends? As I look towards my ability to keep the particular resolutions, I’ve often gotten discouraged when I think of my past success in keeping them. Where does the strong resolve I need to keep them come from so I don’t end up dropping them by the 2nd or 3rd week?
First, I need to aim high, because following God with unwavering obedience will lead me to new heights. Psalm 119:106 reads, “I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.” An early Puritan once said, “A soldier unresolved to fight may easily be defeated.” Psalm 119 also shows the Psalmist making vow after vow couched in constant dependence on the Lord to help him.
Second, the only way such high standards can be fulfilled is by His grace. My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). When I come to the end of myself and my ability to keep God’s laws (or any resolution I make before the Lord), I confess the sin to the Lord and then experience complete forgiveness and the gift of Christ’s perfect righteousness. He continually gives me the overwhelming grace I need for every single moment. Most important, He gives me His abiding presence that I can know and trust in the midst of any circumstance. This is what scripture and life are all about.
Love inspired by the mercy of God in Christ is what will most powerfully and persistently compel me to pursue righteousness. May we all echo what Psalm 27:4 says “To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord” every moment of 2010.
