Letting-go Resolution

It is again time for New Year’s resolutions. While some might dread this, I love the thought of new beginnings! As a child, I looked forward to buying new pencils, notebooks and paper when school began because I just knew this was the year I was going to actually “get” math! This weekend I did my yearly cleaning out of my closet and dresser drawers and now I find myself opening the closet doors often just to see how neat it is! Newness and freshness is what most of us look forward to this time of the year so we tend to make decisions to start a diet, exercise, complain less, pray more or get closer to God… You can add your own desire! We start well but most of us barely make it past January 15th! I have been thinking about this and I had an epiphany. Perhaps we cannot keep our resolutions because we are holding on to something in the past! A love for food or unhealthy habits overtakes our resolve to do better! It is like being tied to a wall by a huge rubber band…we try to go forward…and can for a little while, but eventually we will snap right back to where we were! What can we do?

The Bible talks a great deal about letting go and going forward. I guess the most dramatic incident happened to Lot’s wife as she was escaping the doom of Sodom…something inside her would not allow a complete letting go, so she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt! (Genesis 19:15-26) When we hold on to things that are harmful, obviously the results are going to be dire. We often are hurt but others might be hurt as well. In this incident a family was left without a mother and there were horrible results for the whole nation of Israel!! The choice Lot’s wife made was her choice and the hope of a new life was thwarted by not letting go of things in her past.

Another choice was given in I Kings 19:19-21. Even those who want to follow God with all their hearts are not immune to the desire to hold on to things they think are important…as in the story of Elisha and Elijah. The difference between Lot’s wife and Elisha is that Elisha wanted to follow God more than to hold onto the things from which he drew comfort…job, family, and routine. That spoke worlds to me. The things Elisha wanted to hold onto were not bad things but they kept him from going forward.

So what can we learn from this? First of all, admit that there are things that are holding us back from becoming all of what God wants. We must decide to cut that rubber band and go forward with no holding on. Let go of yesterday…good or bad. I know people who still want to live in high school or college…reliving that touchdown or that academic accolade because that was when they felt life was best! (Was it???) Others are stuck in sadness…a death, a broken relationship…and have become bitter and angry…they are not willing to give life another chance! They have found an unhealthy comfort from this “pit of despair.” Then there are habits that have become a part of our lives…like complaining, negative thoughts, laziness and the list goes on. You can fill in the blank from your own life but if you want to move forward in victory, you must make a decision to cut away and let go of things that are keeping you from making your resolutions a reality.

God has promised us the strength to do what He has called us to do but we must take hold of that promise and quit making excuses for not living in victory. Our resolutions can become reality but we must “press on toward the goal to win the prize.”(Phil. 3: 14) Pressing on means pushing…an intentional decision to go forward. Paul began this statement with the words, “Forgetting (Letting go) of what is behind straining toward what is ahead!” So, before you make any resolution this week, first decide what needs to go...clean out that closet and those drawers of your life and you will find yourself opening the door waiting to see what God has prepared for you that is fresh and new! Happy New Year!!!