Trash the Resolutions. Cash in the Promises. | alyssa santos - rocks. roots. wings.
Trash the Resolutions. Cash in the Promises.
And so our calendars begin with fresh, glossy pages, bearing no marks of tattering or stains that will, inevitably, come.
It’s the clean slate and fresh start we all need. We find, in the turning of the annual clock, a kind of freedom and rebirth. Perhaps last year was brimming over with mistakes, or hurts. Perhaps the marriage you should be thriving within bears down like a weighted blanket; or the financial goals got buried under piles of bills and unplanned crises; or the dreams to be a thinner, happier, more spiritual version of yourself blew away with the March winds.
January, The New Year, affords us the opportunity to throw off that blanket, close those decrepit accounts and dream big once more about doing things right…this time. Doesn’t it?
So there’s a lot of talk about resolutions, of their keeping and of their being broken. I have actually “revised” my lists before, making them a bit more attainable. I have written resolutions, refused to write them, ignored the tradition altogether–and usually with the same results: no great change.
Because real change doesn’t come with the turning of the calendar, but with the bending of the knee.
Real, sustainable life change isn’t achieved through de-cluttering our closets, signing onto a gym membership or setting the alarm and hour earlier (to make time for the elusive work-out and quiet time); but it comes through being acutely aware of the reality that our currency of trade is ragged and worthless.
Let me explain: We seek and lay hold of change when the fear of things staying the same is greater than the fear of the unknown that change brings.
I recently read of a young woman in her twenties who carried around and upon her frame 500 pounds. (I will find her story for you, I promise!) She was morbidly obese. She had resigned to her presumed fate of an early death following a predictable and lonely life of food and disgrace, loneliness and self-loathing.
But the words of an aging, dying man awoke something buried so deeply within her and shone a sliver of light within her soul.
She says that she kneeled down, asked God for help.
And then she began walking.
Today, she is healthy and more alive than ever. The process of change, though it promised freedom, forced her to reconcile with past hurts and disordered thinking; there were hurdles and high points, to be sure.
When we bend the knee–exhausted by our own selves, filled up but so empty–we impress the ground of our reality with a most forceful blow: because we claim the promises of God.
I don’t know the date (though I’m sure she does), but it wasn’t based on the New Year changing. Her life turned and began anew because of that one man’s unconditional love and grace: he offered it to her freely, she chose to accept it.
Friends, God’s promises are for you. For you. Don’t deny him the opportunity to set you free when he’s demonstrated that all he desires is your freedom, your life made new and whole in the saving, gracious act of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Do you know what God promises you? If you did, it just might make you scrap that list of resolutions and rush to the throne room of God and cash in!
Do you think that God will be any poorer for giving you the riches He has promised? do you dream that He will be any the less holy for giving holiness to you? Do you imagine that He will be any the less pure for washing you from your sins? When a Christian grasps a promise…and when he hastens to the throne of grace and cries, “Lord, I have nothing to recommend me but this,”Thou has said it;” then his desire shall be granted.
Our heavenly banker delights to cash His own notes.
Never let the promise rust.
What has God promised you?
Will we set our own resolutions or cash in at the throne of grace and get the good stuff?
What, really, do we have to lose?
What a beautiful post. I love love the reminder that change begins with bended new, not new years resolutions. May I bend the knee and let God change me. Thanks what a joy to read your blog. Many blessings..
Thank you.. we tend to push and push.. when we just need to accept and cherrish what we have been given.. HIS name to praise and HIS gifts to be accepted and entrusted to our hearts, mind, soul, and body. Truly try to cash in on GOD’s faithfull ness and gifts and whole of HIS glory, mercy, and love…Than you again! I might just be able to press on to day and more.
CynD, I think you just might be able to press on! I said a prayer for you!