Still Water Moments: New Year’s Resolutions Revisited

2 Peter 3:8  But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

Question: If you made a New Year’s Resolution(s), how is progress towards that goal coming along for you?  According to a survey conducted by Forbes Health/One Poll, “the average resolution lasts just 3.74 months. Only 8% of respondents tend to stick with their goals for one month, while 22% last two months, 22% last three months and 13% last four months.”[1]  You may feel discouraged if you are in the percentage of those who lost course in pursuit of their goals.  Perhaps you don’t typically make New Year’s resolutions, but you presently have disappointment you aren’t yet where you thought you’d be in certain areas of your life.  The spectacular news is we serve a God not bound by time nor significant dates, that would limit His omnipotence!

Think of God as the Composer and Grand Conductor of the symphony of our lives.  Think of the strings, (the main body of the orchestra), as your relationship with God.  The daily actions we make to maintain that relationship should be the “main body” of our lives.  Think of the brass section as your family and the percussion section as your job.  Lastly, think of the woodwind section as everything else, e.g. health/self-care, leisure, etc.  When a symphony is created using these sections, you may typically hear crescendos and decrescendos, soft peaceful legato notes, and dramatic staccato ones.  One section may provide the melody while the other sections support it via the harmony.  All four sections come together to create one musical piece, a symphony.  Now think of all these portions of a symphony coming together to create your life.  If God is the composer, He knows how the beginning, middle, and end of the song are supposed to sound.  Moreover, He knows the form, or structure, of the song meaning the order in which the components should take place.   We do not and if we’re honest with ourselves, that scares some of us.  However, that is a devotion for another day, right now we are focused on timing.  If God knows the form of the song, i.e. our lives, how silly would it be of us to confine His actions to our timelines?  If you read 2 Peter chapter 3 you will note the context of our focus verse, which indicates that we serve a God not bound by time.

I want to be clear, yes, we should have goals, but we need to put those goals in God’s hands to be executed as He sees fit because He is the only one who knows when and where it will fit beautifully in our symphonies.  Habakkuk 2: 2-3 tells us, “And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.  For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”  As your vision is written, pray and seek the Lord about what He has to say about it, (if you have not, please read last month’s devotion as it speaks to the importance of listening to what God has to say to us individually).  He will advise you as to what you should be doing in the meantime and this “meantime” strengthens our faith and relationship with the Lord.  While in these periods, take hope in Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

Reflection: Were the goals you created for yourself God inspired?  Would the achievement of these goals glorify Him?

[1] https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/new-years-resolutions-statistics/