Upheld In Waiting As Long As God Says

We are all making out our New Year’s Resolutions these days.  And, of course, we wonder how long it will be before we forget them and revert to life as we know it daily.

Is there a possibility of actually sticking with resolutions? I am not so sure.  I think we can make goals and work toward them—maybe one at a time—and the achievement makes us feel pretty good. Does that make resolutions and goals different things? Don’t they both do the same thing?

Resolution:  Webster’s says this is the act of resolving something; the thing determined upon. As in, resolving to go this course of action.

Goal: Webster’s lists this as the end that one strives to attain. As in achieving a desired result.

It seems to me that they are not the same thing. One can resolve to attain the goal. But the resolution isn’t the end game at all. Maybe that will be a relief to some folks. A list of resolutions doesn’t really have much chance to succeed unless they are made into goals with plans to attain them. I don’t see how too many can be tackled at once, either.

We are really talking about changing our habits and therefore our lives. Tall order.

My mentor, Oswald Chambers, in his “My Utmost For His Highest”  had this to say yesterday: “There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait.”

My question concerning starting into a new year and working with resolutions or goals: What if we wait on God as long as He says? What if we commit our resolutions (which we can’t do with our wills anyway) and our goals (to include hopes and dreams) to Him, and wait for Him to move on them? I wonder what would be accomplished in a year?

Maybe things would not happen in our timing, but maybe the results would be even better than we could have imagined in the first place!  What kind of lasting change might that bring into our lives that mere resolutions never could? How could we rejoice in that?

How pleased with us would God be?

“Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He will do it,” Psalm 37:5.