Make Reading the Bible Part of Your New Year’s Resolution
The other day I read online that a recent poll of about 1000 people was conducted asking them what their New Year’s resolution will be. The highest answer and 44% of the results were health-related resolutions.
But 29% of the resolutions centered around something related to a relationship with God.
The next thing I choose to search on Google is “what causes most people to not keep their resolutions?” What I found was that research from a Scranton University study indicated that only 19% of individuals keep their resolutions, and the majority abandon them before January 15. They also determined that the leading cause of failed and abandoned resolutions are not the result of lack of willpower but rather when these resolutions are made based on the date on the calendar.
I found this to be a very interesting perspective because their reasoning was that majority of people are “simply not ready to make a change” and instead make resolutions based on a date on a calendar or pressure from social and cultural expectations surrounding the holiday.
I mention all of this because I think almost every New Year’s resolution I have personally ever made, as well as the majority of every resolution I have ever heard the people around me make, prove the research to be true. I think we can all agree that keeping our resolutions is harder than we anticipated and can admit that we too have abandoned them in the past – probably even before January 15!
But I want to point something out that might seem obvious for some but still makes a beautiful point to everyone when it comes to what the Gospel has to say about any New Year’s resolutions made in relationship to God. Every resolution you and I have and will make revolve around, and the success of them will be determined based on what you or I will do to make them happen.
But the Gospel message is not what you or I can or will do but what has already been done for us in the person of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift from God, not the results of works, so that no one can boast.”
The Bible continues to say in Romans 10:9-10,
“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
This is the beautiful message of the Gospel that flips our general understanding of New Year’s resolutions upside down because the good news of Jesus Christ is that God’s grace is a free gift that you and I do not have or can do anything to deserve or earn. All we must “do” is believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is Lord!
So, if you still looking to make a New Year’s Day resolution, one that could even be finished before the scary January 15 drop date, then consider this…take the first 14 days in January and read the entire Gospel of John. There are 21 chapters in this Gospel so reading one and a half chapters a day gets you done by January 14!
My hope is your heart will become captivated by the love of God put on display through his son Jesus Christ. My prayer is that you will respond to what you read with a heart that chooses to believe in the person of Jesus. Maybe in the past, your heart was simply not “not ready” for a relationship with God but give God a chance, give him two weeks in 2022 to go to work on your heart.
There are a million different types of resolutions you could choose to make in 2022… will you consider making this one and see how God chooses to meet you in the process?
