And just like that, the first month of 2024 is in the books.
Did you know that by this point about 43% of Americans who made resolutions that they expected to
keep for at least this year will abandon those by February 1? In fact, sometimes those rates of success can lead us to ask if we’ll ever make any real, lasting progress. Sometimes the cyclical nature of the rise and fall of commitments like these can lead us to a place of frustration or worse – despair. So I want to take a minute and encourage those of us in the 43% (those of you who keep those resolutions only make up about 9%).
The church at Philippi (that we covered for some time last year) likely at times felt the same patterns of
growth and confidence giving way to weakness and doubt. It is that reason why I think Paul’s words are so helpful to us. Paul writes, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to
completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
On those days when it seems just too hard or as though you haven’t made sufficient progress, let us then
be reminded of this great truth. Jesus began a work in you that will last a lifetime and the results of which
you will enjoy for all eternity. So let us lean into the grace of the One who is not in the 43% or even the
9%, but He who stands in completely different category of never failing. And if your resolutions were
oriented around knowing Jesus, growing in the faith, or going in the strength He supplies, then recommit
to those and do so with full confidence that even though your resolve or strength seems to grow weary or even fail, His love and power will bring us to that place of completion.