Beth and I went to bed very early on New Years Eve. I had absolutely no desire to stay up and “Ring in the New Year” by watching some red ball fall in a town full of drunks some fifteen hundred miles away. No, I wanted to start the New Year off right by waking early, praying a long time, renewing my walking, having a good breakfast, and just living in the repentance I was striving for. How did that go?
Great! I did all the above, and then something soured my mood and by the end of the day I was angry, frustrated, and asking God why the first day of a New Year I couldn’t get things right! Beth and I both have been really sick, so Christmas decorations are still stacked all around the kitchen and all the things I hoped to have finished before 2024, are still undone!
Here’s how I would have looked at all that LAST YEAR. “Oh, great! Ain’t nothing changed! Don’t know why I bother! Stupid decorations!” But that was LAST YEAR! What a difference a year has made! Know what I said this year? “This might just be the last year I decorate like this! Basically, did it all by myself, everybody’s sick, everybody hates me, nobody loves me, I’m gonna go eat worms!” Like I said, what a difference a year makes!
Here's the reality: A change of date does nothing to change a heart. A new year doesn’t mean there won’t be battles with the old man. Whether everything works out as I wish or not, my desire should always be to spend a long time in prayer, to seek the Lord continually through the day, and do nothing that might cause me to not WANT to call on Him.
I don’t know about you but for some reason when I get stupid, or do what I know I shouldn’t, or fail in the basic goals I had for the day, I can have a difficult time talking with God about it. I feel unworthy, and often retreat to my default setting of, “I don’t have a right to approach Him anyway.” What a ridiculous and deeply flawed way for a Christian to think! So, why do I do it? Because I’m listening to my old man whose only reason for hanging around now, is to make me doubt that God really loves me and to make me miss the joys that come by walking and talking with God everyday about everything!
What a sorry purpose! But that is the only purpose my old man can have because my old man is DEAD! But, I am alive in Christ! I have a new life, true joy, hope for eternity, and a Living Father who wants to hear from me about everything, even if I have blown it immediately after I have genuinely repented! No matter what, I should always WANT to call on Him because He always wants to hear from me. No need to make a resolution to begin doing that and to begin ignoring our old dead man. We made that resolution when we trusted Christ as our Savior. Let’s just do what we know to do, and keep that old man in the grave where he belongs!