Every Christian has – and should have – resolutions of some kind: whether or not connected to the start of a new year, we all want to grow and learn to be more like Christ. We would like to have victory over sinful habits, read our Bible more, pray more, love more, be bolder, etc. Having these plans is a good start, but often, they end up being nothing more than just that: plans.
I know all too well that failing to stick with your resolutions can be frustrating. It can cause feelings of guilt, or worse, it can cause self-justification and hardening of the heart, which can lead to the sin of unrepentance.
That begs the question: how can we keep our resolutions and achieve our goals?
If you are familiar with my writing, you will know that I always look to the Word of God for answers, so let’s find the answer to this question in the Bible.
Most of the time, sticking to resolutions is not easy at all; it takes effort and willpower. It starts with feeling the need to change something and it ends with having the discipline to maintain that change. That means that every successful resolution requires at least the following ingredients:
- Insight into what we should change.
- Repentance, including the conviction to change.
- A good dose of courage.
- Wisdom to know how to pursue.
- Self-control, endurance, and perseverance.
If we fail anywhere in the process, it usually comes down to failing in one of these areas. Let’s look at 5 Biblical keys that help us succeed in these areas and therefore succeed in keeping our resolutions.
Key 1: Discern the will of God
Keeping resolutions successfully begins with prayerful self-examination. I say prayerful self-examination because although it sometimes seems glaringly obvious what we should change, there are times when we can be misguided. We see an example of this in the Bible in Galatians 5 where some Galatians were convinced that they should accept circumcision, and Paul warned them that this persuasion wasn’t from God (Galatians 5:2-7). Or, we can be led astray by subconsciously being focused on worldly gain instead of on pleasing God, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21, ESV). And God understands our hearts, plans, ideas, and thoughts better than we do, “for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought,” it says in 1 Chronicles 28:9.
So, to make sure that we are on the right track, we need to be sure that what we want to change is truly God’s will. Because if it isn’t, why would He support us and help us succeed?
Finding out what God’s will is can at times be hard. Often the reason for this is the background noise that is hindering us from hearing His voice clearly. This “noise” comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes. To name a few:
- Being too busy and having too little quiet time with God.
- Distraction by worries and fears.
- Unforgiveness, bitterness, or self-condemnation.
- Unwillingness to step out of our comfort zones.
- Ongoing sin, or persistently ignoring the prompts of the Holy Spirit.
- Being focused on what we see, rather than the things above (Colossians 3:2).
Try to get those distractions out of the way. Your eyes, ears, mind, heart, and body, must be dedicated to the King of kings and His Word to hear Him clearly.
It takes prayer, spending time in His Word, and sometimes fasting to bring the mind, the heart, and the body into submission and rededicate our whole being to God. Yes, that takes effort, but it wouldn’t be fair to expect anything from God if we persistently fail to meet His most important commandment: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30, ESV).
From there, we can honestly ask God about the state of our hearts and let Him tell us in which areas we need to do better, just like David did: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, ESV). The Holy Spirit will show you areas in which you can grow if you listen carefully and are truly willing to change. You might hear, feel, or see it, or it might come through conviction when reading something in God’s Word.
In seeking the will of God when it comes to personal change you cooperate with God from the very beginning of the process. Because it is His revelation to you, and not merely something other people expect of you, or you expect of yourself, you can be sure He will also help you achieve His will. And we are definitely going to need His help for the rest of this process.
Key 2: Understand the importance of your resolution
In my case, the Holy Spirit gave me a couple of specific points to work on, one being that I should exchange much of the time I spend on my phone with spending time with Him. That conviction was deep as I realized how much time I had subconsciously wasted that could have been spent in prayer, or other useful things for God’s Kingdom.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many ways in which spending time on your phone can be God-glorifying, for example reading God’s Word, having meaningful conversation, looking for things to pray for, education, etc. But apparently, the time I spent on my phone had gradually increased and, inversely, the time I spent in prayer had gradually decreased.
I was rudely awakened to this fact one morning when I was mindlessly scrolling on my phone and felt “disturbed” by the sirens of multiple police cars. Then it dawned on me that these police cars were all stopping right in front of our house. I walked to the window to see what all the fuzz was about, and was shocked to see police officers saving a woman who had climbed onto the train tracks to end her life!
As I immediately started praying for her, the Holy Spirit reminded me that years ago, Jesus came to me in a dream, and told me that I should intentionally pray for the individual people in my neighborhood and that their lost souls grieved Him.
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My husband and I live in a city where few people are saved (only about 3% of people adhere to the Christian faith), and many are deeply depressed, fearful, or in some other form of mental anguish. I felt guilt, shame, and sorrow immediately, as I hadn’t prayed that way for a very long time, while it is such an obvious task for any Christian, let alone one in ministry.
From that day on, the message kept repeating. For instance through a book that the Holy Spirit prompted me to read, during a prayer meeting at my local church, and finally even through the preacher at the Sunday service who literally said: “Spend less time on your phone, and more time with God.”
It was very clear to me that this is important to God, so this resolution has all my attention.
In Matthew 3:8 John the Baptist called out hypocrites, saying, “Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”
If we are truly repentant for our sins, this should show in the fruit we produce. At one time, I was also one of those depressed and suicidal people in this city, until I repented and found Jesus. That makes it all the more important that I continue praying for those suffering now.
To lukewarm Christians, Jesus said: “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth,” and then, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Revelations 3:15-16, 19, ESV). All of us should take these warnings very seriously. We should do everything in our power to stop ourselves from becoming lukewarm if we don’t want Jesus to spit us out!
So, let’s be zealous and make the changes that are important to God.
Key 3: Have courage through faith
It can be frightening and uncomfortable to make certain changes even when you understand the importance of your resolution. But don’t let these fears stop you. The prospect of becoming a lukewarm Christian and Jesus spitting you out of His mouth should instill way more fear than stepping out of your comfort zone does.
The prospect of becoming a lukewarm Christian and Jesus spitting you out of His mouth should instill way more fear than stepping out of your comfort zone does.
You might remember the man with one talent in Jesus’s parable in Matthew 25, who didn’t put his talent to use out of fear. His master was so angry, that his only talent was taken away, and he was cast into darkness to suffer (Matthew 25:28-30). That doesn’t have to be us if we exchange fear for faith and go for it.
After involving God in the previous stages of coming to a holy resolution, we can rest assured that Jesus has our backs. All we need to do now is step out in faith and do what Jesus asked us to do. Just like Peter in Matthew 14:28-32, we can step out of the boat onto the water, and be sure that each faithful step will bring us closer to Jesus. But, just like Peter’s faith was tested by a storm that came up while he was walking on water, we can also expect a testing of our faith. It’s only when things get challenging, that we know how deep our faith is, and how faithful we really are when it comes to obeying Jesus. But don’t worry, even when we are hit by a storm and we start to doubt and sink, all we have to do is call out to Jesus and He will take our hand and make sure we don’t drown.
Key 4: Resort to Biblical wisdom
Besides mustering courage, we also need to be wise in the way we approach resolutions. Thankfully, the Bible tells us how to deal with plans wisely to fulfill them successfully. This list may give you some inspiration:
- Have faith that if your plans align with God’s purpose for your life, He will help you succeed: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted,” (Job 42:2, ESV) and, “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.” (Psalm 138:8, ESV).
- Seek advice from God and fellow Christians: “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” (Proverbs 15:22, ESV).
- Make sure you do it for and with God: “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established,” and, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” (Proverbs 16:3, 9, ESV).
- Pray for success: “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!” (Psalm 118:25, ESV).
- When you face opposition, turn to Him: “I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.” (Psalm 57:2, ESV).
- Take it one step at a time: “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” (Proverbs 21:5, ESV).
- Work smarter, not harder: “If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed.” (Ecclesiastes 10:10, ESV).
- Read the Word and live by it: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8, ESV).
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Key 5: Apply self-control, endurance, perseverance, and steadfastness
Unless God sets us free in an instant, breaking a habit or building a new one takes time. If we could change the way we do things with a flick of a switch, and stick with it without error, we would all be fully perfected instantaneously. But that is not God’s design. We aren’t under some kind of spell; we have to choose to live by God’s rules each and every day because we love Him and trust Him.
That was always God’s plan for mankind. I base this on the fact that when He created Adam and Eve, they lived in the Garden of Eden which He declared ‘very good’ when there was a forbidden tree right in the middle of it (Genesis 1:31, 2:9). That meant that each day, Adam and Eve both had to decide to obey God and choose Him over the tree. That implies that the relationship they had with God and each other, didn’t consist of love only. Holy virtues such as faithfulness and self-control were also part of their relationship. But none of these virtues can exist without the choice to do the opposite…
As a consequence of choosing to disobey God, we became subject to the corruption of this world. But thanks to Jesus’s sacrifice, we can now, with the help of His Holy Spirit, be free from that subjection to sin and death. Because of Him, we can always choose to do what is right and act in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
All of these virtues may play a role when trying to stick with a resolution, but self-control plays a particularly large role. Without it, we cannot succeed, as we won’t be able to persevere and endure difficulties when we are put to the test. Having self-control means that we can control the flesh with its desires, instead of it controlling us. (You can read more about that in this article and of course in Paul’s letters.) It means that having self-control is necessary to fight bad habits, addictions, and temptations, all of which our flesh is eager to fall into.
But perseverance, endurance, and steadfastness are needed when things get tougher. Let’s compare it to running a race.
Having perseverance means that you have the determination to carry on, even when things get challenging. It’s when you actively decide that you are going to continue with the race even without knowing how long the race will take and finding obstacles on your path. This strong-willed mind is grounded in trust and hope in God Who will help you finish the race (Ephesians 6:18, James 1:25, Philippians 1:6).
This is closely related to steadfastness, which emphasizes unshakable faithfulness and unwavering commitment, as a result of being firmly rooted in Christ and the testing of our faith (1 Corinthians 15:58, James 1:3). It helps you to continue running forward rather than stopping or turning back, even when you face headwinds or people jeering from the sideline. For you know where you are going and that God has always helped you overcome any challenge.
The word endurance is often used interchangeably with the words perseverance and steadfastness, but it has a slightly different meaning. Having endurance means that you are able to hold out even when things get tough mentally, physically, and/or spiritually (Hebrews 10:36, 12:1-3, 1 Corinthians 9:24-25). It means that you accept the pain and discomfort as a necessary part of the race, as you continue to anticipate the joy that comes when winning the prize.
So, when you feel like giving up, apply all of these:
- Subject your flesh to the Spirit.
- Don’t get distracted but stay determined to get to the finish line, knowing that God will help you.
- Make sure that you are firmly rooted in Christ (thus in His Word) so that you can stand firm when it gets tough, and grow even more steadfast.
- Keep your eyes on the Prize!
Final encouragement
Apostle Simon Peter motivates us in this way:
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” (2 Peter 1:3-9, ESV).
He named some of the qualities we discussed in this article among those necessary to be fruitful and effective. He wrote that we should do everything we can to acquire and develop these qualities. And that is possible for we are no longer slaves to the corruption caused by sinful desires.
Through Jesus, God has enabled us to be like Him. This means that you have the power to control any sinful desires and other things that stand in the way of godliness and to choose virtuous qualities instead. So, when it comes to holy resolutions: Because He has given us everything we need to live Godly lives, we can all achieve our goals!
May God bless your efforts to become more like Him!