What New Year’s Resolution?

New Year’s Resolutions?? NO. God’s amazing Grace?? YES. ALWAYS.

People fall into this “tradition” of making New Year’s Resolutions, but the energy it takes to keep them leaves them feeling like they have to strive to be better, stick to the resolutions no matter what and it just wears them out. It’s all performance once again to be a new and better you.

I have a better idea! How about resting in what Jesus has already done and fall into the peace of God’s Great Grace. In writing this post, I stole from previous posts on this page, because they so directly speak to the issue of resolutions and promises by many to be better. To be a new you. Here’s the problem. He has already made you new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Did you see that.

Let me just say, God’s Great Grace is radical. So let me remind you that you are righteous; as righteous as you’ll ever be. It’s impossible to exhaust the grace of God. Grace is so much more. It’s more than just what I need when I sin, or when I make a mistake, or when I don’t deserve it. God’s grace is so deep and wide, we can never fully understand it. As a matter of fact, Ephesians 2:7 says “that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus”. Even when you look at that verse, you see it’s nothing we do or can do, it’s all Him doing it. No resolutions. It’s Him showing us, it’s His grace; it’s His kindness toward us. IT’S ALL HIM!!!!

Jesus will apprehend you and make you a prisoner of his love. You don’t have to be a prisoner to some fabled New Year promise. His love will capture you and keep you. They are chains of love. Bible says it would take us an eternity to get a grip on the Grace of God. That’s how vast it is, how good it is, how wonderful it is. Everything God provided for us, came to us by His grace. Remember John 1:17? “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”. Again you see that truth is always on the side of grace. The law was given, which speaks of distance, but Grace and Truth came, which is Jesus Christ. So we could say it this way – Grace was the way that Love chose to display Himself. WELL GLORY!!!! That makes me shoutin’ happy. Let me say it again. GRACE IS THE WAY THAT LOVE CHOSE TO DISPLAY HIMSELF.

Heb 4:16 says – “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”. Do you see that? Come boldly to WHAT? So, God’s throne is called a throne of GRACE. Not a throne of WORKS, or burden, or achieving, or performance, or resolutions, but a throne of grace, and we are to come to it BOLDLY in time of need, because our provision is waiting there.

We don’t slink before God like a wimp begging God out of fear. We go boldly as heirs and joint heirs of Jesus Christ, knowing that His Grace has provided all that we will ever need, and we put a demand on the anointing and take what He has so wonderfully promised us and provided for us. Remember: Ask=Atayo in the Greek which means “to put a demand on what is due you.” To put that in context, lets look at a few verses where people, once again, wrongfully interpret scripture, because they don’t STUDY, but only READ.

First is John 14:13,14. 13. “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the son. 14. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. Now let’s apply the proper Greek meaning to the word ASK. And whatsoever ye shall put a demand on what is due in my name, that will I do, that the father may be glorified in the son. If ye shall put a demand on what is due in my name, I will do it.

The second verse is John 15:7. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Again, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall put a demand on what is due and it shall be done unto you. You can apply this truth anytime you see the word ASK in the gospels. Try it yourself on John 15:16. You’ll see that it’s not a resolution. That’s the wrong kind of motivation or energy. It’s abiding and resting in Him by receiving all that He’s done. Again, it’s Just Jesus and His Great Grace.

You see, Grace is God’s divine “want to”. He saved us because He wanted to, He loves us because He wants to, and He sent His Son to die at Calvary because He wanted to. You should never ask yourself the questions Does God want me? Does God care about me? Does God love me? It’s already been answered and settled 2000 years ago at Calvary. God’s invited us to come boldly before the throne of Grace….ANYTIME. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I can go ANYTIME, because He loves me and accepts me and I’m His child. Well Glory!!!

So many Christians are still stuck in the old grind of trying to be good enough for God, or do a good work for God, or try to perform just right to get God to accept them or to get God to love them. Let me say it loud and clear “There is no external, pasted on behavior change or performance that will lead to true salvation or bring approval or acceptance from God”. Quit trying to achieve and start to receive. By trying to keep the rules or live right for God, or keep some silly resolution, you’re really saying the gift of His Son was not enough. I’ve got to do more, I’ve got to bring something to Him, I’ve got to sacrifice for Him. That’s the old law. STOP IT!!! If you want to truly bring a sacrifice to Him, bring the sacrifice of Praise. You see, it’s not the gift or the sacrifice you bring to Him; it’s the gift and sacrifice He brought to you. It’s not what you can do for Him; it’s what He has done for you. The best thing you can do for God is embrace what He has already done for you.

Once you get the full revelation of His Marvelous, Ridiculous, Radical, Inexhaustible Grace, you’ll drive religious people and legalists crazy. You know how I know that? Some of you reading this will shake your head NO in a few places and think – that can’t be right, others will question – “can that really be true”? And yet others will hunger even more to get further revelation of this absolute Truth. I’m in no way hindered by the call God put on my life to preach and teach this powerful Gospel of Grace. My goal is to teach it as radically as Paul the Apostle did. If people don’t continually question this teaching as being too radical and that it just gives people a license to sin, then I’m not teaching it like Paul and I’m not doing it justice. Besides, I don’t have the authority to give people a license to sin, but God does……and He did. He gave you free choice. Grace is not grace unless it gives you the right to choose, even if your choice is wrong. God loved us enough to give us free choice even when He knew we’d make the wrong choices at times. Even so, it never changes the truth that God loves us. Read Romans 8:31-39.

Don’t take my word for anything written here. Take your bible, study to show yourselves approved, and get ready to renew your mind to God’s way of seeing things, to Kingdom thinking. The problem here becomes that most people do not let the bible get in the way of what they believe. They believe what they’ve been taught or from examples or they assimilate it. This is what Jesus said in Mark 7:13

Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that. (NIV)

And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others (NLT)

thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that. (NAS)

Remember – “If the knowledge of the truth makes you free, then it’s error that binds you”. John 8:32 – Ye shall know the truth and …..

So when the truth is presented to you in scripture, you ought to change your erred way of believing. It’s “wrong believing” that keeps people from the great provision of God, not poor behavior.

So welcome to 2023. Rest in God’s Great provision for you. He has already decided how He is going to show up for you and nothing you do can change that. Here’s a quote from Malcolm Smith, one of my Mentors, that I have used before, but it bears repeating right here. “God’s love for us is so great and so vast, without condition, that it appears scandalous to those who are religious and works/performance oriented. God who is love refuses to be God without us. He is the one that must come where we are. He is unalterably, unconditionally, unendingly for you.

Grace and Peace.