Almost every single year I have resolved to…. Save money, lose weight, eat better , run more, you name it I probably signed up for it ! The problem is often we set ourselves up for failure because we have an unconscious system of comparison and when our best efforts fall through we feel like a failure. Let me explain. You start out, I’m only eating fruits and veggies today, I’m drinking nothing but water. And maybe you do pretty good for a few days,,, then the bad day comes & you have a bowl of ice cream because it was a bad day and you’ve been good so it’s not that bad. I’ll be back on track tomorrow is what I usually say, then another hard day & less veggies and more ice cream until you get to the point of WHY BOTHER ? I’m a failure ! I’ll never lose this weight, never save any money, never… Do you know we have trained our hearts to do that with Jesus ? It was a bad day today I said things I shouldn’t have , I did something I shouldn’t have done, but I’ll be at church on Sunday to make it right again. It’s a vicious cycle of looking inward, self will, failure, and disappointment that has either been taught to us or we’ve sat in wrong theology where “our good works” make us good before God.. Often we look at people that “seem” to have it altogether & wonder why am I not like them? Maybe I’m not even saved.. Failure, and disappointment of this kind is crushing.. We have to look to the cross & the finished work of Christ and not inward on ourselves. We look to Jesus! When He was nailed to the tree & said It Is Finished, it was no longer just a cross. It became the mercy tree, where we cease from our labor, rely on Jesus and not on ourselves or what we have done. Thanks be to Jesus, because He paid it all! All to him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain. He washed me white as snow.. Lord, I ask that you allow this year to draw us closer to you.
Philippians 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Colossians 2:2 That their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself,