Four Great Words for a New Year’s Resolution
On most accounts, I’m glad 2009 is now in the history books. On the scales it weighed heavily on the hard side for most people.
In my home group, for example, three of the couples were not sure their businesses would survive. In gallows humor, one of the men was taking bets about which of his three businesses would fail first!
We have been trying to sell our home for 7 months to downsize and gain some needed financial margin. There hasn’t been much interest so we are left wondering whether we can even sell it. The list goes on and on.
However, I was pulled up sharply with some unusual advice that Isaiah gave to King Ahaz who was facing attack and destruction by the kings of Israel and Aram (Is. 7:1-2). He gave Ahaz four words of counsel from the Almighty about what to do in the face of the war on Jerusalem (Is. 7:4):
1. Take care!
2. Be calm!
3. Have no fear!
4. Do not be fainthearted!
That’s totally counter intuitive from a human perspective!
Ahaz was shaking in his boots. He was terrorized by the enemy and overwhelmed by fear. On the other hand, God saw these two angry kings as posing empty threats who were on their way to failure!
God didn’t give Ahaz some clever strategy for overcoming his assailants. Rather, He made it a matter of the heart and spoke deeply to the attitude He wanted to see Ahaz embrace in the face of crisis.
As a new year’s resolution, what about imbedding these same four words into our life? We’ll need some practice to train our minds to interpret our life this way— from God’s perspective. To the degree we can do it, the scales will tilt heavily on the side of hope and victory for the coming year.
Tags: Breakthrough, Goal Setting, Improved thinking, Inspiration, New Year's Resolutions
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