The New Year is often a time when people will make a “New Year’s Resolution.” It is a time of the year when new beginnings are something that occupy the minds of many people. Some want to lose some weight that they have acquired over many days of overindulgence with ice cream, banana pudding and other delectables that are loaded down with that ole enemy, sugar. It is a noble venture to try to lose unwanted pounds but for most people it is a venture which goes nowhere. Most people give up by the end of January and simply resign themselves to folds of unwanted flab.
I remember when I was about twenty-six years old and working in a clothing store in Tifton, GA, that a reporter from the local paper came around to the stores every year asking those working there what their New Year’s Resolution was. I once told the reporter that I resolved to read Snuffy Smith every day for the whole year. Don’t remember if I made it or not. Right next door to the clothing shop where I worked was Tift County Drug Store and they served the famous Tift County Hot Dog. Best in the world. Another time when they asked the “resolution” question I said that I resolved to eat a Tift County hot dog for lunch every working day of the year. People said I could not do it. No one can eat that many hot dogs, chips and a chocolate milk with ice cream in it. The only thing they miscalculated on is the fact that the Tift County hot dog was beyond compare. It was celebrated by anyone who ever ate one. Well, I did it. I ate a Tift County hot dog with chips and a chocolate milk with ice cream every work day of the year. I never got tired of them. Every day my Tift County hot dog with the trimmings were waiting on me at the counter when lunch time rolled around. Hmmmm, Hmmmm good!
But, New Year’s Resolutions, it is said, are made to be broken and most often they are. Therefore, they are not taken very seriously at all. It mostly a game. But, I can tell you a commitment that is not a game and it lasts forever. When a person commits themselves to Jesus Christ by faith, that is a commitment (resolution) that never changes. When God’s Holy Spirit deals with a person and reveals to them the necessity for them to be saved, that person is, more than often, really serious about that commitment. The truth is that not only is a person making a commitment to Jesus, the Lord is making a commitment to them as well. And, one does not have to wait until the New Year because this new commitment can be made any time a person calls upon the Lord and makes that permanent, life-changing commitment (resolution) to Him. So, this life altering commitment is shored up by the fact that it is a two-way. And, the fact is that Jesus can see if a person’s commitment is true or not. And if it is true, He commits Himself to them sealing the transaction for eternity.
Your New Year’s resolution may be a good one. It will hopefully accomplish that which a person desires. It may be permanent. But, the resolution (commitment) made concerning belief in Jesus by faith will never pass away. It will produce the fruit that God intends for it to produce with no doubt about it.
Our New Year’s resolutions are only temporary most of the time but the one made to Jesus will never fail. It goes on and on and on right into eternity. It is not just wishful thinking. It is real and permanent. It’s a New Beginning and not just Wishful Thinking.
1-3-2025…Wm F. Harrell
