Trading Resolutions For Grace

Starting tomorrow, millions of people will set their New Year's resolutions and face them head-on. For a day, maybe a week, hopefully longer...

Has this ever happened to you: you start the new year with a handful of resolutions that will make you healthier, smarter, prettier, and more spiritual. You're motivated and ready to go, and you do pretty well for a while.

But then your schedule stops you, your relationships hold you back, your plans fall apart, and soon you've decided it's easier to just go back to the way you lived before your resolutions.

Sound familiar? For most of us, this is what the first few weeks (ok, days) of the year look like. There's no lasting motivation to keep going with that exercise plan, Bible study, or house cleaning schedule, so it falls by the wayside.

Unfortunately, this also means that our spirits take a beating. Our best intentions turn into something we stick in the back of a closet, only to be pulled out again next January. Suddenly we're depressed and discouraged because we're failed once again.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

If we try to start the New Year under our own power and with our own ideas, we're bound to fail. But if we're completely surrendered to God's will in our lives and stay obedient to His word, His grace will fill in the rest. 

It's not about me. It's about the Lord.
It's not about my strength. It's about His.
It's not about my plans. It's about His.

And that's the grace-filled plan for the New Year. It's all about Him.

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