Happy New Year

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” – Mark 10:27

Happy New Year! It is 2012, and we face a new year with new opportunities and challenges…successes and failures.

There’s something invigorating about the start of a new year. Each January 1^st feels like a fresh start…a new beginning; and its in these moments that we make resolutions.

Sometimes these resolutions are to break an addiction, improve fitness, end a habit or start another. Whatever the specific resolution, we’re typically seeking to be better, healthier, more disciplined and more successful version of ourselves.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with New Years resolutions. They’re goals, and goals are good. They have the potential to help us accomplish things we deem a priority; but for those who make resolutions, the vast majority fail to keep them.

Here are some very interesting statistics released by the Opinion Corporation of Princeton, New Jersey:

:: 62% of people make New Years resolutions

:: 8% are successful

:: 19% achieve resolutions every other year on average

:: 24% never succeed and have failed on every resolution every year!

There are lots of reasons why some succeed and others fail. The goal may be too big. The planning may be lacking, which reminds me of the old saying: If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.

That is true, and I'll add making a decision based on a date alone [or submitting to a date as the means to a better you] is a plan to fail. In fact, believing a certain date combined willpower will yield different results is simply a recipe for failure.

Real change…real improvement is always only found in Jesus. He is the one that transforms. He is the one who sets free. He is the one who positions us to leave the past behind us to step into a future where we are new creations. [ref. 2 Corinthians 5:17]

To break an addiction, to change behavior or to ultimately become a better version of ourselves requires the power of Christ at work in us…not willpower built on a new year.

A New Years resolutions plan that can position anyone for success starts and ends with submitting to God and not a calendar date.

Dwight L. Moody once said, “If God is your partner, make your plans BIG!” He was right!

So take a few moments right now to pray. Seek the face of the only one who can transform you into all you can be in 2012.