By Mrs Theresa O & Dannah (Video).
The start of a new year is usually a time most of us make reflections on how we spent the past year, what we achieved in our personal life, family life, secular and in the kingdom of God. This helps us to understand and appreciate the successes the Lord has enabled us to achieve, areas to make improvements and to look forward to the many possibilities ahead of us in the new year.
We know that the key to achieving the goals set in any new year resolution is to make them
SMART- Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time constrained.
However, not everyone that makes resolutions at the start of a new year or at any point in the year, usually achieve their goals or meet their targets.
The determination and a willingness to give up something or make sacrifices to achieve your set goals are key ingredients required to make a resolution that will bring a revolution into your life this year. You must ask yourself this question; “What am I willing to give up to achieve what I want to this year, or make a positive impact in my profession, community, family or ministry?”
Also, the need for whatever resolutions we make to be inspired by the Holy Spirit cannot be overemphasised. If they stay committed to it, a God-inspired resolution can revolutionise a person’s life and have a far greater impact in the lives of people around them in a way that they may not have envisaged.
On the 19th of February 1958, David Wilkerson, a country preacher made a resolution to sell his television set and swap the two hours he used in viewing TV every evening for a two-hour midnight prayer. It was during one of this midnight prayer time that God spoke to him to “go to New York City and help those boys”. These were seven teenage boys, members of a gang called “The Dragon” standing trial for murder. This singular resolution to substitute television watching for prayer did not only lead him into a great spiritual experience with God but also into a journey that revolutionised his ministry. He went from being an obscure country preacher to an international evangelist and author of a bestselling book “The Cross and The Switchblade” which has sold over 30million copies worldwide. His prompt act of obedience to go to New York also led to the conversion of Nicky Cruz who was the leader of a New York City street gang and now an international Christian Evangelist.
In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul the Apostle wrote “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”. Like Paul the Apostle, whatever achievement we have made or heights we have reached in life and ministry, we should not rest on our oars. We should rather count ourselves as having not apprehended/attained and press forward to greater heights.
We must be willing to make sacrifices, relinquish certain things which might be legitimate and allow God to lead us to make resolutions that will revolutionise our lives and ministry. There are great possibilities before us this year. The questions to answer are: “What sacrifices are you willing to make?”, “What are you willing to give up?”, “What are you willing to commit yourself to?”, “What are your Resolutions? And are they God inspired?”.