Last year (2023) 30 million people in the UK made New Year resolutions, with health (28%), money (27%), family (24%) and self-improvement (21%) topping the charts for the most common resolutions. However, surveys suggest that most people lasted seven weeks before giving them up and 21% only lasted for a month before giving up.
What resolutions can we make that will last beyond January? At the start of a new year, let’s remember Paul’s words: ‘I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings’(Philippians 3:10). Like Paul, our resolution should be to know Christ deeper in this coming year.
‘But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.’ (Phil 3:13,14). Paul sees following Christ like an athlete running a race in the stadium. As any good runner, we mustn’t look back. We cannot live on past successes, get bogged down by past sins and failures, or be bitter over past wrongs we’ve done, or had done to us!
An athlete strains every muscle to win the race. Like Paul, let’s be single-minded in making Jesus our focus during the coming year in everything we do. What practical steps are needed if we are to go deeper in our prayer life and Bible reading? How can we more effectively see Christ working in our workplace and career, or family and children?
In the film Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell says: ‘I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.’ In this New Year, let’s find our pleasure in the pursuit of knowing Christ better!