ARE YOU RESOLVED?

It’s hard to believe that 2019 is already past and we are now in the year 2020.  When I was a child (and I’m sure you feel the same), the year 2000 seemed so far away, let alone the year 2020. 

Back then, those years were the ‘future’ but now they are our ‘past’. Life really is but a vapor…here today and gone tomorrow.

Movies (such as Back to the Future) and cartoons (such as the Jetsons) depicted the ‘future’ as having us getting around in flying cars and living in homes that were high up in the atmosphere with robot maids and everything was done for you at the push of a button….from cooking to cleaning to even brushing your teeth for you and having your shoes taken off and then slippers put on your feet without you having to do a thing but relax.

Yet, here we are in 2020 and I don’t see any of that taking place, even in the near future.  Which is probably for the better anyway. 

It’s Another New Year….

As each year passes and a new year dawns, people have had the tradition to make New Year’s Resolutions.  Perhaps you have made resolutions in the past or you may have even made a resolution at the beginning of this year?

The definition of ‘Resolutions’ means =
             a firm decision to do or not do something.

Resolutions differ depending upon the person.

The most common resolutions that people make are: personal weight loss, exercise more, save more and spend less money, learn a new skill or hobby, spend more time with family, quit smoking or drinking, read more (books), find another job, and the list goes on. 

People who make resolutions mean well and really do plan to make the changes necessary to achieve those goals.  They start out strong and determined but before long the diet is forgotten, exercise is ignored, excuses are made and life returns to the way it was before. 

Why?  Because change is hard! Change takes work!  

Change takes determination and denying the flesh of the things it wants or wants to do!   But change is sometimes necessary if anything positive is going to be achieved.  (Example: Diabetics have to make changes to their diet for health sake.  Those with high blood pressure have to exercise and cut down on salt intake. Etc)

While we do need to make changes sometimes to benefit our health or our family, the best goals we can set and strive to attain are goals that help us to grow spiritually and will impact our eternity….and possibly those changes will have an impact on our family’s eternity as well.

Are you resolved? 

To make a change it takes a made up mind.

This walk with God takes a made up mind.

• It takes being resolved.
• It takes determination.
• It takes work.
• It takes getting back up if you fall (just repent and keep walking in the right direction.)

Paul had a made up mind and kept walking with God - he kept preaching the Gospel ….

• despite persecution
• despite being put in prison just for preaching about Jesus, 
• despite being shipwrecked three times
• despite being stoned and lived to tell about it…think about it!
• despite being beaten with rods three times
• despite being without food and water often
• despite being cold and without proper clothing in bad weather
• despite all the dangers he faced as he traveled about the countryside to take the Gospel to others who had not heard about Jesus
• despite being whipped as 40 stripes were placed upon his back tearing his flesh open just as Jesus had experienced…not just once but FIVE times…can you imagine the agony and pain?!!!

But he didn’t give up! He was resolved!  And he kept serving God and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ despite all that he endured.
(2 Corinthians 11)

Trials will come.  It’s the devil’s job to try to discourage you and make you turn around.  But don’t give in! Be resolved to live for God no matter what!

If Paul endured and kept pressing onward, so can we!

The saddest and scariest thing a person could say is what King Agrippa said to Paul in Acts 26:28 “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

It’s not worth it to turn around now!   There’s a hell to shun and a heaven to gain. We’re too close to the coming of the Lord to lose our eternal reward now.

Eternity is too long and hell is too hot to be lost forever!

We’re not promised tomorrow. 

The cemetery is full of people who thought they had ‘tomorrow’ to make a change.

We need to be resolved to live for God!

We need to be resolved to be all that God wants us to be!

We need to be resolved to truly be HIS DISCIPLE!

We need to be, not only resolved, but MAKE time to pray, MAKE time to read our Bible….every day!

We need to discipline this flesh to fast often.

God WANTS to work in us and through us but it takes US disciplining and denying our flesh and having a made up mind to do HIS will, not ours.

He wants miracles to take place but we can’t look around and think God wants to use someone else….look at yourself and say ‘He wants to use ME!’

But we have to be resolved and make the necessary changes to become all that God wants us to be.

Are you resolved?