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I want to talk about making new year’s resolutions. About 30% of American’s make new year’s resolutions – most about eliminating bad habits and developing better habits with eating and drinking, exercising, money management and relationships.
However, while some new year’s resolutions are kept, many aren’t. Why? Messiah told us: The spirit is willing but the flesh, the old nature, is weak. We can want to do the right things, but wanting and doing are two different things. It’s easy to want to do the right thing. It’s much harder to do the right thing.
We need more than will-power and resolutions to really change and do the right things.
The good news is we can change and be the people God intended us to be.
Because Messiah lived, was crucified, died, was resurrected and has ascended to the right hand of God the Father, where He is right now – He’s living a new life – a life in the presence of God, a life full of truth and love and power.
And because we’re born again and united to Messiah and the Spirit of Messiah is living us, we too are able to live a new kind of life – the kind of life Messiah is living. We’re able to be new creatures. We’re able to live in newness of life.
Because of the transformative power of Messiah, we’re able to love God the way we should – with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
We’re able to understand the Word of God.
We’re able to pray without ceasing.
We’re able to live by faith not by sight.
We’re able to be like Yeshua, think like Yeshua, have His values and priorities.
We’re able to hunger and thirst for righteousness, live a holy life, die to our old ways of thinking and living.
We’re able to resist temptation through God’s strength.
We’re able to produce the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
We’re able to forgive others as God forgives.
We’re able to love our fellow believers, love the unlovable, even love our enemies.
We’re able to bear one another’s burdens.
We’re able to serve others selflessly.
We’re able to be peacemakers.
We’re able to fear God not man, go against the majority, live differently from the world.
We’re able to endure persecution, turn the other cheek, bless those who curse us.
We’re able to rejoice in trials, give thanks in all circumstances, be content in any situation.
We’re able to hope in the face of death.
We’re able to discern truth from error, stand for the truth and speak the truth in love.
We’re able to share the gospel, the message of salvation – boldly, courageously, faithfully.
We’re able to do good works that glorify God.
We’re able to use our gifts to build the most important thing in the world – Messiah’s community.
There are the things that will make us the people God wants us to be.
So, how can we live this way? How can we live in newness of life?
By understanding that Yeshua is the Messiah and the Son of God, that He left Heaven and became a man, that He lived a holy life and died a very special death to atone for our sins and enable us to be reconciled to God and live forever, and that He was raised from the dead and is alive now at the right hand of God.
When we understand these truths and make a serious commitment to obey this living Lord and Savior, our old, sinful nature dies. We are born again. We’re given a new, godly nature. The Spirit of God comes to us. He lives in us, dwells in us, takes up residence in us.
But that’s not enough. It’s not enough to make a one time commitment to the Lord and be born again and have the Spirit of God living in us.
Why? Because the old, sinful nature is still there and desires to do evil, corrupt things. And the Spirit of God living in us desires the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. The sinful nature and the Spirit living in us are constantly fighting each other.
If we yield to the corrupt desires of the old nature, we will not be able to carry out our good intentions and resolutions and be the people God wants us to be.
But if are filled with the Spirit, if we live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, let the Holy Spirit guide our lives each day – we will win the battle of the desires of the Spirit and the desires of the old nature and we won’t do what our old, sinful nature craves. We will live in newness of life. We will be a new creation, a new creature, a new person.
So, how do we live in the Spirit? By doing two things. First, by wanting to live in the Spirit – to be close to God and stay close to God. Do we always want to live in the Spirit?
Sometimes yes and sometimes no. If we don’t want to live in the Spirit, then we ask the Lord to help us want to live in the Spirit. And we keep on asking until we want to.
The second thing we do to live in the Spirit is ask God to help us live in the Spirit. We ask, and we keep on asking God to fill us with His Spirit, help us walk in the Spirit. If we keep on asking, we will receive. If we keep on seeking, we will find. If we keep on knocking, the door will be opened for us.
Let me put it another way. This is from Isaiah 40: Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who wait on the Lord, who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
That’s what we need – each day. New power. New strength:
Strength to overcome sin and the sin nature and its corrupt desires.
Strength to have the right priorities.
Strength to be heavenly minded, not earthly minded.
Strength to die to the world, die to sin and self and selfish living.
Strength to suffer.
Strength to pick up our cross and follow Yeshua.
Strength to live in a post-Christian, anti-Christian culture.
Strength to experience financial hardship – even if it gets very severe.
Strength to maintain hope when the world is falling apart.
Strength to live well and strength to die well.
The Lord gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless … Those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
Wait on the Lord. Turn your mind, your thoughts, to Him. Be aware of Him, alert to Him. Be alive to Him. Look to Him – just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal. If you do, you will find new strength to live in newness of life.
Be attuned to your Creator – throughout each day. Be in tune with Him. If you do, you will hear His music and you will sing a new song to Him.
The best new year’s resolution? To live in newness of life so we can be the best version of the person God wants us to be.