Thursday, January 03, 2013

Starting over in the new year


You're tempted, aren't you?  You're tempted to make some new years resolutions, a list of things you really are going to do this year.  

But we all know that soon, within a few weeks, we have abandoned our quest to do better and have fallen back into old habits.

Why do we try to do better? Why do we want to change?  For me it's the knowledge that I'm not what I want to be...there's things to change, to fix.  I'm still a work in progress....but I can't make the changes on my own...that never lasts.   I think that's why a verse I read this morning was so encouraging.  It gives the daily prescription for how to become the person I know I want to be, the man I know I should be.  Here is that verse from Galatians 2,

"My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

I live by dependence, not by resolution.  I please God by surrender, not by success.  I find peace in trust, not in trying.  I find real life by letting Christ live his life through me.  So I live today, trusting Jesus Christ to live his life through me.  Any other course of action is always doomed to fail.

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