Unhappy New Year’s Resolutions and the Undriven Life—The Christian Difference, Part 9

Now that you’ve had 18 days to exhort yourself to reform in those areas you saw failure in in 2018, will you allow me to admit you to rehab? Yes, Rehab. Resolutions are an addiction. They tick all the driven-life boxes:

• Resolutions give you something to strive for.
• Resolutions make you feel in control over that which you don’t have control.
• Resolutions chase away your negative thoughts about yourself.

Notoriously unkeepable, resolutions may be the drug of choice for those areas of your life that aren’t working but they serve only to expose. Like the LAW, they expose your ongoing need for a Savior.The GOOD NEWS of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ is that HE IS your savior! YOU are not your savior! Apart from Him you can do nothing. NOTHING. Better yet, because He changes you from the inside out, He transforms! He does a complete work.

CHECK IT OUT–The Gospel ticks better and holy boxes:

• He completes the work He has begun IN you. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Phil. 1:6
• You are not in control. You can only surrender. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matt 11:28-30
• Your negative thoughts about yourself are not to be shied away from because they are the first stage of reform. The second stage, repentance (the desire to turn away), leads to the third stage, confession. These three are the keys which unlock transformation; becoming more like Christ. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James 5:6

Can you let-go? Can you, like David, let God have His way in your inner man?