<>It’s that time again, isn’t it? We’re standing at the precipice of another year; should Jesus not come back within the next few days. My question for you is this- what resolutions are you going to make this year? Quit smoking? Lose weight? Work less hours and more time with the family? Maybe you want to stop that particular sin you swore to yourself that would never happen again? Are you trying to be a better person? How often have you made these promises to yourself on 12/31 only to fail once more on 01/02? Every year you go through this and every year you get the same results. Someone said this was the definition of insanity. It is insane to do the same thing over and over again only to get the same outcome and try the same method all over again to arrive where you are now- failing to get what you want.
<><>If I may, let me suggest that perhaps you are approaching it from the wrong end of the spectrum? You are attacking the problem with the “wrong formula and it’s leading to failure every time. You’ve been trying to fix an internal problem by outside means; that never brings the right results. You may not even realize it, but, you are trying to change the inside, the character flaws you know exist and haunt you often times to a breaking point and, yes, you yield to its desire every time.
What’s a man to do you may ask? How can my behavior change? I ‘ve tried therapy, hypnosis, anger management, the works. Nothing seems to work. Exactly! You need to change from the inside out not outside in. You need to become a brand new person. That’s right, you say, that’s what I have been saying and trying to do. Let me put it this way, you need to be born again. Oh, that’s sound kind of kooky and scary. Relax, you are not the first person to think that. One day when Jesus walked the earth, He was approached by a very smart, very religious man, named Nicodemus, and he was quizzing Jesus about life, and Jesus told the man- “You must be born again.” Nicodemus was shocked, he stood there scratching his head and rubbing his beard with the look- yeah right, like my mother can give birth to me a second time. Jesus went on to tell him this rebirth, getting to be a new person was not a physical birth, but a spiritual birth. Ah, you say, I knew it, a religion card is about to be played here. Yes; in a sense, but more- it’s a roadmap to the freedom from the very thing that causes you to do what you do- SIN. Ooh another non politically correct term. Yes it is,but, it is the truth. Everyone is afflicted with it because of Adam and Eve passed it on to each of us when they disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. No one, even me, has escaped its grasp.
Now, if you are still with me, let me tell you some good news. What if I told you that you could actually overcome what you have been powerless to overcome up to now? Notice, I said the power to overcome your sin, not eliminate it. You will still struggle in life, but, what if you could say no to whatever you have been resolving to say no to for all these years, maybe months or weeks? What if I told you that you can get off the dizzying merry go round? Sounds good, but what’s the catch? Still suspicious are we? There is a catch, I’ve been found out. However; it’s one that God has set, not me. Freedom comes with this cost- you must repent of your sin and accept Jesus Christ as your only Savior. He alone is the only way to be saved. You might be thinking at this moment. that’s kind of narrow minded. What about Mohammed? Buddha? Mormons? et al? Aren’t you just conjecturing your own opinion? No, in fact, God said it in His word. Jesus, Himself, said it- ” I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man comes to the Father(i.e. gets saved) except through me.”
What does this mean for you reader? A lot of things, but, primarily if you are going to find relief from the prison you’re in, there’s only one key to the door- Jesus Christ. The door of your imprisoned soul, the bondage you want to be freed from; comes at the moment you repent of your sin and resolve to accept Jesus Christ as your only hope of salvation in this life and the one to come. Through repentance comes forgiveness and power from God to live life no longer a slave to your sinful desires. Through repentance comes a new heart and a life you never thought possible.
So, then, what will it be? Are you going to be a brand new person from the inside out in the new year or the same old thing in a new year. I sincerely hope it’s the former, don’t you?
