Resolutions

Helen Francis

Happy New year!

Now that the new year is underway many have embarked on the tradition of new year's resolutions, usually a determination to get fitter or healthier, perhaps in an attempt to offset some of the excesses of the Christmas season.

I've had a vague notion towards healthy eating and exercise, but I can't say I've ever made a new year's resolution to do these things. I've managed substantial weight loss several times in my life but the regimes adopted have eventually proved unsustainable and bit by bit the weight creeps back on.

I've embarked on exercise classes, yoga, pilates, aerobics, even been a jogger back in the day and completed a half marathon. But eventually injury, or apathy or life gets in the way and the routines fall by the wayside with the resultant feeling of failure.

That feeling of failure can come whenever we feel we've fallen short, not lived up to what we thought we were capable of. It is often greater when we have committed ourselves to something, like a resolution, and it's not confined to our physical lives. Often in our spiritual lives we can feel failure and disappointment in ourselves. 

But we can find comfort and encouragement in the knowledge that the Lord knows we are weak, and  is full of grace and compassion toward us.  Psalm 103 says:

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust
Psalm 103: 13-14

As Paul explains, Jesus has humbled himself by taking on that same weak flesh in order to rescue us:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.'
Hebrews 4: 15-16

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

And elsewhere in Romans 8:1, he explains there is no condemnation if we are in Christ jesus.

May we confidently lean on God's mercy and grace to see us through all our weaknesses in the year ahead. Have a very blessed 2024!