THERE are some people who seem to think that the beginning of a New Year offers a favorable occasion for the making of resolutions.
It may be that some decide to slacken their energies in the Lord’s service, otherwise their health may suffer.
When retrenchment is considered necessary either in spending energy or money, the knife is so often applied not to business nor to dress but to the things of the Lord!
Others determine that they will give more time, money and attention to the interests of Christ, and map out a program having that end in view. There may be those who resolve that they will be more diligent in their reading of the Holy Scriptures, and in the study of books which may assist them in the understanding of the Sacred Volume.
Now we do not wish to act as a “wet blanket” at such a time as this, but we want to say quite frankly to those who have made resolutions: —Scrap them! and to those who are on the point of making them: —Don’t! Resolutions lead nowhere unless it be to bitter disappointment, sometimes verging on utter despair. The person who makes resolutions says “I will do this;” “I will not do that;” and the I who speaks has not the power either to do or not to do!
“Ah!” —says someone “but I will ask the Lord to help me.” We are sorry to appear like discouraging that person by saying that the Lord will not be likely to do so, because the I who speaks was put out of His sight once and forever at the Cross.
The new I does not make resolutions. His desires circle round not himself but Christ, and having Christ as his Center, his Leader, his Object, his Pattern, by occupation with Christ he becomes like Him; and not by resolution, but by resemblance he lives a life that is well pleasing to Him. Philippians 3 gives us a little bit of the autobiography of a Christian who was characterized not by making resolutions but by God-given desire, by Spirit-inspired purpose; and by a consuming longing after Christ that overleaped every obstacle, and caused him to be whole-heartedly, unreservedly, consistently, during his entire Christian life, here for Christ. His ambition was: — “That I may win Christ;” “That I may know Him.” Filled with divine energy he wrote; “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (verse 8 to 14). Christ was written on his heart and across his life. All his affections were centered in Christ; all his desires circled round Christ; the whole aim of his life was to be ever and only and altogether for Christ.
Does someone say “That is highly idealistic; we are not Paul’s; and it is just because I desire to be in my little way what Paul was so decidedly that I venture to make these resolutions.” You have made similar resolutions before, dear friend, have you not? Where have they led you? Have you not repeated them year by year, or perhaps more frequently, in hope that the New Year might be better than its predecessor? But alas! Your hope was not realized. You had better give it up.
What then shall I do? Do nothing! Turn your eye away from yourself; from your ideals; from your resolutions; from your happy experiences; from your failures; from yourself in every sense of the word. Turn your eye upon the Lord Jesus! Let His beauty fill the vision of your soul; let His love thrill your heart; let His glory command you; let His claim upon you grip you; and in absorbing occupation with Himself you will — unknown to yourself — show forth His excellencies who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. There is no effort in this; no self-occupation and certainly no self-exaltation; but there is that beautiful manifestation of Christ that exalts Him; that brings joy to His heart; and that brings blessing to those who thus simply delight in Himself.
The chapter to which we have called attention sets before us a man, subject to like passions as we are, who was absolutely in love with the Lord Jesus. The vision of His glory had burnt up all that he had boasted in as a man in the flesh. His supreme claim upon him had led him to count everything but loss that he might win Him. He longed to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings in his life; and, if He did not come, to be “made conformable to His death” by dying a martyr’s death; and through resurrection to reach Him where He is on the other side. While that was his great desire, prompted by his deep devotedness, he said “we look for the Saviour.” Because our conversation, (citizenship, commonwealth, politics) is in Heaven we look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour to take us there. Then we shall have a body of glory like unto His body of glory; then we shall be free from every hindrance; then we shall feast our eyes upon Himself; bask in the sunshine of His love; and forever and ever praise His Name.
Throughout eternity it will be CHRIST! He will fill the throne; He will fill Heaven and earth; He will fill the whole universe; He will fill every heart in the new creation; CHRIST WILL BE ALL IN ALL.
God desires, our blessed Lord longs, the Holy Spirit works that CHRIST may be writ large in our lives in this world here and NOW. This will be accomplished not by resolutions but by our being passive in the hands of the Holy Spirit that He may real the glories of Christ to us; shed abroad divine love in us; manifest the traits of Christ through us; and thus maintain us here to His praise and glory.
Shall we then not resolve one way or another, but earnestly give ourselves to prayer. Our desires may well focus themselves in this petition: —
“O fix our earnest gaze
So wholly Lord on thee
That with thy beauty occupied
We elsewhere none may see.”
W. Bramwell Dick.