Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
There are many good people in the world who want to live and let live, to be a help to their neighbors, they are morally upright, but they live with a serious problem: they are victims of an addiction. It may be the addiction of drugs; or the captivity of alcohol. In some cases (and these too are serious) they are addicted to food and their weight problem is out of control. All kinds of addictions assail us humans; we seek the solution to our problem.
Come January 1, these dear people believe that a New Year's resolution may help them; so they "resolve" in the next twelve months to rise above their addiction and conquer it. They promise themselves and often their family, "I'm going to overcome this problem in this New Year!"
They are utterly sincere, and their hearts are right; they mean well and the Lord pities them. They just need to know the truth and to act on that truth, for Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). The truth is not the value of our own promises to do and to be good; our own promises are like "ropes of sand," they look good and our friends and loved ones hope that they will hold; but they don't.
The problem with making promises to God is that wonderful "I" that makes the promises. "Our beloved brother Paul" sees through the problem; he says that our "carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7). The solution: stop relying on that "wonderful I" and begin relying on the Lord's promises.
Making promises to God is not the answer, because our promises are the "Old Covenant" that "gives birth to bondage," says Paul in Galatians 4:24. The New Covenant in contrast is believing God's promises to us.
A prayer to pray may go like this: "Father in heaven, thank You for giving me another New Year; thank You for loving me so much that you gave Your Son to me to be my Savior; yes, I do believe--but 'Lord, ... help my unbelief!'" Those are the words of the distraught father in Mark 9:24 whose son was devil afflicted; Jesus had promised him "all things are possible to him who believes" (vs. 23).
The poor father set the stage for all of us: "Lord, I believe" he responded; but then immediately begged for forgiveness (as must we), for he added, "help my unbelief."
A New Year's resolution is not your solution; a New Year's choice and a New Year's prayer, is.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 1, 2009.
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