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| PentecostalTheology.com
NEW YEAR’S REVELATIONS, NOT RESOLUTIONS – Ray E Horton
New Year’s resolutions rarely work, at least for me. They are simply attempts at works that we haven’t been successful with before.
The turn of the year is indeed a good time for evaluation. But let us seek the Lord on what He’d have us change, and His power to do it.
New Year’s Revelations
Instead of New Year’s Resolutions, let us seek the Lord for New Year’s Revelations. He wants to lead and guide us every day. And for whatever He calls you, He will empower you. That’s the new and better way.
Instead of New Year’s Resolutions, let us seek the Lord for New Year’s Revelations. He wants to lead and guide us
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). That’s how we are saved, not by our good works.
However, God does have works for us. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). These works don’t save us. They are the overflow of a thankful heart.
“For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). God has plans and purposes for our lives for a good destiny.
So, if we resolve to do anything in the New Year, let it be to discover, or maybe rediscover, the good works that “God prepared beforehand,” His plans and purposes for our lives.
Walk in the Spirit
It is not our own good ideas, but His. Walking in our own good ideas is walking in the flesh rather than the Spirit. Paul told the Galatians that was foolish. “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3).
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).
So, in the new year, let us spend time in His Word and be led by the Spirit, having spent time in intimate communion with Him. Then, even if He doesn’t clearly reveal specific plans and purposes for us (often it is just a step at a time), yet we will experience His guidance and be headed in the right direction.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105).
And that is good since the time is short and we want to redeem the time. “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesian 5:16). And it is clearer than ever before that evil days are upon the world and we especially want to be led by the Lord in the new year.
