Resolutions
“New year, new me.” As trite as it sounds, we’ve all been there. We summarily shuttle the old year into the attic we keep saying we need to organize. We jettison all the passing year’s failures, foibles, pain, mistakes, bad memories, empty calories, and blowout losses of our favorite sports teams. The New Year is a new calendar, new goals, or unrealistic goals we keep mentioning because we like to pretend THIS year is different.
Mark Twain once said, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times.” While I can’t relate to Twain’s smoking habits, I can borrow his sentiment by confessing that I’ve started weightlifting dozens of times! If my actions matched my resolutions, perhaps I could be a suitable stunt double for Aquaman rather than Slenderman. New Years resolutions are no doubt cliched and rarely effective. But Scripture does present the necessary practice of shedding the past and embracing what’s ahead.
Paul says in Philippians 3:13-14, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul adamantly forsook the self-righteousness of his BC (before Christ) days as a Pharisee because Christ’s righteousness is infinitely greater than Paul’s. Paul also forsook his guilt of persecuting the church because God’s grace is infinitely greater than Paul’s sin. He goes so far as to say he counts all the gain of his past life rubbish in order that he might gain Christ (3:8).
Rather than be paralyzed by self-glory or self-condemnation, Paul resolved to pursue Christ in the present with every fiber of his being. Paul states the goal of his pursuit, and it’s the same for every believer: “that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (3:11). Paul’s resolution is simple: glorify Christ in the present, share in His glory for eternity.
Paul did not know how long he would remain pursuing his goal, or when he would finally attain it. After all, he wrote Philippians while under arrest, awaiting an appeal to Caesar. Paul’s life was in the Lord’s hands. So was the number of his days, and so was what would happen in each of those days. Yet, notice the language he uses to describe his resolve: “straining forward” and “I press on.” Paul is not passively waiting to be beamed up into a better place. He is actively engaged in a full-fledged pursuit of his goal. He’s striving to conform into Christ in every way and every day, whether he’s confined as a prisoner of Christ, killed as a martyr of Christ, or freed again to be an evangelist of Christ.
Many of our earthly resolutions are derailed by a touch of adversity. Whether we’re too cold to jog, too busy to exercise, too stressful to maintain a diet, too much ourselves to be anything else, suffering is the Achilles heel of any well-intentioned goal. Paul understood that adversity will accompany his pursuit of Christ. That’s why he was willing to suffer the loss of all things (3:8), share in Christ’s sufferings (3:10), and become like Him in His death (3:10).
Under this mindset, Paul’s prison walls presented a unique opportunity to pursue Christ. He rejoices that his imprisonment has actually served to advance the gospel (Philippians 1:12). Because of his unjust imprisonment, the whole Roman imperial guard heard of Christ (1:13), and other evangelists were emboldened to speak the Word without fear (1:14).
The resolution to pursue Christ is truly the only resolution where every adversity is actually an opportunity for Divine increase. We can experience God grow our faith through trials (James 1:2-3). We can experience His true comfort in affliction (2 Corinthians 1:4). We can experience the presence of His power in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
So, whatever our goals may be for 2024, I pray we bring them all into subjection to the only goal that matters in eternity. James 4:13-16 warns us not to boast in our own goals for the coming year, but instead to say “If the Lord wills,” which is a phrase we should all resolve to incorporate more into our vocabulary. “Self-improvement” certainly has merit! But 1 Timothy 4:7-8 says, “Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
What does the Resolution to Pursue Christ look like for you? Perhaps it’s the pursuit of a deeper prayer life. Perhaps it’s increased daily Bible reading. Perhaps it’s devoting more time to serve others. Perhaps it’s working within your giftedness to edify the local church. Perhaps it’s sharing your faith more boldly and more frequently. Perhaps it’s growing to be more like Jesus in thought, attitude, word, and deed. For all of us, I think it’s all of the above. As we’re new creations in Christ, the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). So let’s pursue the upward call of Christ today. Tomorrow. For 2024, until He returns or calls us home, and in Him we attain the goal.
- Pastor Steve