Abide. It is an invitation, not a resolution.
We are enamored with newness.
Our love affair with “new” or “new and improved”, left unchecked, has potential to shape our entire lives.
Insatiable fascination for new experiences drives relationships. Unquenchable desire for new possessions guides acquisitions. Unsatisfied ambition for new praise steers ego.1
Even vintage in vogue speaks to our obsession with new- renewal, new interactions with the obsolete, old made new.
So, we make resolutions and turn over leaves and pull out a completely unblemished sheet of paper with grand hopes that spring eternal.
And yet, we just as often refuse “new”, choosing instead to hang on to what once was, old habits dying hard, old memories, often revised, becoming roadblocks to a future. In resignation, ambivalence, or bitterness we recognize, like Solomon, there is nothing really new under the sun.2
So, we disdain resolutions and those who make them and burn leaves and scratch out mistakes (or worse yet, never attempt anything that might become one) in disappointed resistance.
It has taken a lifetime for me to realize a very important thing.
The newness I crave is never singularly external.
Neither is the newness God desires for me.
I am the something new.
God, Who began a work in me, is faithful to complete it.3 He makes all things new with His mercies each morning.4 When I abide in Him, new fruit will grow.5 I change from the inside out and those changes become evident to those around me.
God does not need or ask me to find a new sheet of paper so He can write on it.
I am the sheet of paper.
I don’t need a fresh start, I need to be still.
I don’t need a resolution, I need rest in an easy yoke.6
He is the fresh start.
The only way I will ever quench the universal thirst for the only newness that will ever satisfy is the gospel at work in me daily. The old has passed away. I am a new creation.7
Abide. It is an invitation, not a resolution.
It is daily awareness of Whose I am and Who He is.
Who is He to Whom I belong?
God, creator, sustainer, and judge of all there is, is as personal as He is universal. He knows my name and I am His, most certainly not because I offer anything of great worth, but because He decided to love me, pursue me, die for me, and conquer the grave for me. He created me for eternity on purpose, planning and offering salvation before time began, in spite of my propensity to defy Him at every level. Purchased by His blood and filled with His Holy Spirit, the third person of the triune, living God, I belong to Him. I am not defined by this world or roles we have created to live in it. I am a child of the King.
Need to make some changes to how I spend my time?
Abide, and He teaches me to number my days and use time wisely.8
Wondering how I can get back on track with diet and exercise?
Abide, and He reminds me that my body is His temple and whatever I eat or drink or do, I do for the glory of God.9
Want to steward opportunities better? Grow professionally, academically?
Abide, and He directs my path.10
Have relationships in need of growth, truth, forgiveness, or reconciliation?
Abide, and He shows me how to love genuinely and live at peace with others as far as it depends on me.11
Struggling to make significant changes in my thought life?
Abide, and He empowers obedience through the renewal of my mind and the power of the empty tomb.12
It is no easy task. Abiding goes against the very fabric of our nature. We want to be the author of our story, the captain of our ship, the king of our lives. We gobbled the fruit that promised equality with God so we think we are. When gospel truth opens our eyes to God, who we really are, and what Christ Jesus did to save us, we stand empty handed. Surrender is the only legitimate response. Striving ceases.
He created me. He loves me. He died for me. He resurrects me. He wants to lead me. So He offers a daily, invitational command as a good shepherd to the sheep for whom He laid down His life and picked it up again.13 Abide.
I won’t abide out of fear. Resolutions and goals are not a litmus test of my worth.
I abide out of my love for Him. The change it produces is proof of His.
Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith, is calling me to something new every day.14
May 2023 be a year of daily abiding.
References
1. See 1 John 2:16.
2. See Ecclesiastes 1.
3. See Philippians 1:6.
4. See Revelation 21:5 and Lamentations 3:22-23.
5. See John 14:4-5.
6. See Matthew 11:28-30.
7. See 2 Corinthians 5:17.
8. See Psalm 90:12 and Ephesians 5:15-16.
9. See 1 Corinthians 6:19, 10:31.
10. See Proverbs 3:6.
11. See Romans 12:18.
12. See Romans 12:1-2 and Hebrews 2:17-18.
13. See John 10:1-18.
13. See Hebrews 12:2 and John 10:10.
Faithful To Complete 